We carried out a review of the data available to us about Together at Home Ltd T/A Visiting Angels on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Together at Home Ltd T/A Visiting Angels, you can give feedback on this service.
Together at Home Ltd T/A Visiting Angels is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes. They are registered to provide care to all adults including those who may be living with dementia and have disabilities.
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. At the time of our inspection they were offering personal care to 18 people, some of whom had live in care workers.
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 spoke very positively about the service they received and described care workers as kind and respectful and the registered manager as very approachable, enthusiastic and efficient.
The provider invested in their care workers and recruited staff who they assessed as having the right aptitude to be good care workers. They carefully matched care workers with people so there was the best chance of a good working relationship. They had arranged small teams of staff who worked “around” each individual. This offered consistency and promoted a good working relationship between people and their relatives.
There were excellent lines of communication within the service. The provider had facilitated systems which allowed people, relatives, care workers and the management team to communicate both as a small team for each person and as a part of the larger service.
Care plans were written in a personalised manner with the full involvement of people and their relatives. The registered manager contacted people and their relatives each week to ask if they were satisfied with the service they received. They were responsive in reviewing and adapting care plans according to people’s changing support needs and preferences.
They worked closely with community health professionals and were proactive in eliciting medical advice and support. They contacted health professionals to establish good working relationships and facilitated visits from physiotherapists who they felt would improve people’s mobility and independence and make a difference to the quality of their lives. Care workers were keen to learn new ways to support people to mobilise and encouraged exercise in line with physiotherapist recommendations.
The registered manager completed assessments to identify risks to people and provided guidance for staff so they could mitigate the risk of harm. People and relatives told us they felt safe with the care provided. The provider had systems to identify and report possible abuse. The care workers had received safeguarding adults training and demonstrated they could recognise signs of abuse and knew what action they must take.
Medicines were administered in a safe manner by staff who had received training to do so.
The provider had systems and procedures to monitor, check and audit care provided to ensure they provided a high level of personalised support. They were open to input from people, relatives and their staff and were continuously reviewing what had worked well and what required improvement so they could provide a high -quality service.
The provider had worked closely with health and social care professionals and liaised with charities for both the benefit of those people to whom they provided a service and for people living in the local community. Throughout the pandemic they had provided a variety of voluntary services which had included shopping, collecting medicines and companionship. In addition, they had facilitated talks on a variety of topics which had included falls prevention and nutrition and hydration. They had utilised the knowledge from these talks for the benefit of people they offered a service to.
This service was registered with us on the 19 March 2020 and this was the first inspection.
Why we inspected
We undertook this comprehensive inspection because the provider had not been inspected since they had registered with CQC.
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.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk