My Homecare Newcastle

Updated 7 July 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and specialist housing.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave a short period notice of the inspection because we were completing a remote inspection and we also needed consent from people and relatives to allow us to contact them.

Inspection activity started on 13 June 2022 and ended on 20 June 2022.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority commissioning and safeguarding teams. We contacted Healthwatch to gain any feedback they might have. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

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.

During the inspection

We contacted 28 people and relatives by telephone to gather their feedback. We spoke with the registered manager. We also spoke with the area manager and contacted every member of care staff to gather their feedback.

We reviewed a range of records. This included care and medicine records for six people. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment, support and elements of training and induction. We also reviewed policies and procedures and a range of quality assurance checks.

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as video calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.

Updated 7 July 2022

About the service

My Homecare Newcastle is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own homes. The service provides support to people with a range of health conditions. At the time of the inspection, the provider supported 109 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

People’s needs had been assessed and personalised support plans were in place with people and their families being involved. Staff were kind, caring and compassionate.

Care was provided by a consistent staff team, although the pressures of COVID-19 has made that difficult at times. In the majority of cases, people said staff arrived and stayed for the agreed times.

People felt safe with the staff team supporting them, and staff had received training in safeguarding people from abuse. Accidents and incidents were reported, although the procedures around recording these needed to be reviewed.

Medicines were managed safely. The provider was in the process of updating their medicines policy in line with transferring to electronic recording.

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 were supported by staff recruited safely, and who were trained and monitored to carry out their roles effectively. Staff were supported, but asked that positive feedback received, should be relayed back to them. The provider was addressing this.

People were protected from the risk of infection as people told us staff always wore PPE. The provider was in the process of updating their PPE practices.

People’s dietary needs were met, and the service worked well with other healthcare professionals to achieve good outcomes for people.

A complaints procedure was in place and people and their relatives knew how to complain if they needed to. The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.

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 on 4 February 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection because the service had not been previously inspected since registering with the CQC.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.