At Home Specialists In Care

Updated 1 July 2022

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

This 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. A registered manager 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 short notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 26 May 2022 and ended on 22 June 2022. We visited the office location on 27 May 2022 and made telephone calls to people using the service, their relatives and staff after this visit.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it was registered. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually 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 with the registered manager, five members of staff, two people using the service, and five people’s relatives or friends.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records. We looked at four staff files. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 1 July 2022

About the service

At Home Specialists in Care is a domiciliary care agency providing support for people in their own homes. The service was supporting around 50 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People spoke positively about their experience of receiving care from this provider. One person’s relative said: “I could cry with how happy we are with the care [my relative] gets; the staff clearly love her, she’s in the safest hands.” Another described the care staff as “lovely, just lovely.” Without exception everyone praised the company, both the management and care staff, and said they were very happy with their care.

The registered manager carried out regular audits of the service, and these identified where there were any shortfalls so that there was continuous improvement.

Staff we spoke with told us the management team were accessible and supportive; the registered manager told us they worked hard to ensure the culture within the service was positive.

Where incidents had occurred, the provider had made the legally required notifications to CQC.

Medicines were managed safely, with regular reviews of people’s medication taking place, as well as management audits.

The provider took steps to involve people in their care, and we saw evidence of this within people’s care records and reviews. Staff told us they routinely checked people’s preferences when providing care to them.

Care took place in accordance with people’s consent, and where people lacked the capacity to consent to their care, appropriate alternative arrangements had been implemented. We identified some improvements that could be made in relation to recording best interest decisions, which the provider implemented straight away.

People told us they felt safe when receiving care, and said they would feel confident to raise concerns. Where concerns had been raised, the provider had conducted appropriate investigations and, where required, taken improvement action.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us in December 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection in line with CQC’s inspection programme.

We undertook this inspection at the same time as CQC inspected a range of urgent and emergency care services in Leeds. To understand the experience of social care providers and people who use social care

services, we asked a range of questions in relation to accessing urgent and emergency care. The responses we received have been used to inform and support system wide feedback.

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.