Background to this inspection
Updated
9 July 2021
The inspection
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke the registered manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.
We spoke with three people and five relatives about their experience using the service. We also spoke with five staff members over the phone and further two staff members e-mailed us feedback about their experience working for the service.
We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.
Updated
9 July 2021
About the service
Right at Home Borehamwood & Watford provides personal care to people in their own homes. 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. The service was providing support to 19 people with personal care needs at the time of our inspection.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People and their relatives told us how staff listened to their wishes and respected the choices they made which made them feel happy and confident. Feedback from all those we spoke to evidence that the provider had an extremely caring and highly motivated staff team to care for people.
There was an extremely effective and strong leadership at the service which led to people receiving an exceptionally personalised service. There was great commitment from management and teamwork to ensuring people continued to live in their own homes, fulfilling lives. There was joint effort made by staff and management to continually looking for ways to develop and improve the service provided to people. The positive culture developed by the leadership team filtered down to each staff member and had a positive impact on people and relatives.
People told us the help and support they were getting from staff was invaluable and often meant the they could enjoy life in their own home safely and worry free. They told us staff went over and beyond with supporting them to live independently and the way they wanted. We found numerous examples where staff exceeded their expected responsibilities to ensure people received the best support tailored to their needs.
The service involved the community in helping support people living with dementia to continue to live the life they wanted part of their community safely. This required extremely detailed plans and risk assessments as well as flexibility from staff which was achieved with joint efforts in people’s best interest.
People and relatives told us they felt the service was not just safe but tailored to their needs as well as flexible and reliable.
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. People’s independence and their right to live their life as they chose was fully respected and promoted. The provider and their management team led by example and promoted a positive culture based on strong values and beliefs which run though the core of the organisation.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 16 May 2019.
Why we inspected
This service was registered with us on 22 March 2019 and this is the first inspection.
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.