30 May 2019
During a routine inspection
Harmony Care is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care within people’s own homes for younger and older adults with a variety of needs, including people living with dementia, learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder, mental health conditions or a physical disability. At the time of our inspection the agency was supporting 70 people.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found:
Quality monitoring systems included audits, spot checks on staff practice and regular checks on people’s satisfaction with the service they received, by surveys, phone calls or visits from the service’s management. The provider had recognised the service needed to improve following our previous inspection and people and staff told us there was improvement. These improvements needed to be embedded into usual practice as there were still some areas where people said there could be some improvement, for example for some people felt less staff visiting and consistent provision of rotas (so they knew which staff were coming) was needed.
People and relatives told us they felt safe with care staff and staff were able to demonstrate a good awareness of each person's safety and how to minimise identified risks. People and care staff told us they were able to attend people’s care calls within a timely way and stop for the duration of their planned care call.
People were supported by care staff that were caring. People received care and support based on their individual needs and preferences. Staff were knowledgeable about people, their needs and preferences and used this to develop a good relationship with the people they visited.
People were supported by care staff who had the skills and knowledge to meet their needs. Staff understood, felt confident and well supported in their role. People's health was supported as staff worked with other health care providers when needed to support people’s healthcare needs.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff understood that they should support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People's care plans reflected people’s needs and preferences and the staff were able to explain recent changes to people’s care. People told us they were involved in assessments of their care needs and reviews were carried out by visiting senior staff.
People knew how to complain and that any concerns would be listened and responded to by the provider. The manager saw complaints as useful feedback from which to develop and improve the service.
People, relatives, staff and professionals gave us an overall positive picture as to the quality of care people received, and said they were able to share their views with staff.
People and relatives told us the manager and staff were approachable, organised, listened and responded to them and acted on feedback when they shared this with them.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update:
The last rating for this service was ‘requires improvement ‘(published 04 December 2018) and there were three breaches of regulation. We had issued the provider with a warning notice in respect of poor governance. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when they would improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Harmony Care - Staffordshire (DCA) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up:
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.