Archived: Care at Home UK Limited

Updated 28 September 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This was a comprehensive inspection and it took place between 31 August and 06 September 2017. The provider was given 24 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in.

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, and their expertise was in the care of older people.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information we held about the provider, in particular notifications about incidents and accidents. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We looked at concerns reported to us, and used this in our inspection planning.

The provider had completed a provider information return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make.

As part of the inspection we visited four people at home and spoke to them about their experience of the agency. We spoke to a further four people who used the service by telephone and five relatives. We interviewed three care staff and spoke to a further three by telephone.

We reviewed a range of documents and records, including five sets of care records for people who used the service, three staff recruitment files, complaints records, audits, outcome of questionnaires, accidents and incident records.

Updated 28 September 2017

Care at Home UK Limited provides live-in support and personal care to people in their own homes. Care workers are allocated to live-in with people for up to twelve weeks at a time. The agency provides care in several counties including, Essex, Suffolk, and Oxfordshire. At the time of our inspection, support was provided to 22 people.

When we last inspected Care at Home Uk Limited in June 2015 we rated this service good. At this inspection we found that the service remained good.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Staff understood the need to protect people from harm and the steps they should take if they suspected abuse. The agency was aware of their responsibilities to keep people safe and we saw that they, and care staff took steps to protect people and reduce the likelihood of harm. Medicines were safely managed and subject to regular checks to ensure that they were being administered as prescribed.

There were sufficient numbers of staff available to cover for absences and meet peoples needs. Recruitment procedures were thorough and reduced the likelihood of the service employing individuals who were unsuitable to work in this type of service.

Staff were well motivated and supported. They received training to meet the needs of the individuals they supported. Staff had a good understanding of healthy eating and the feedback from people using the service was that they enjoyed the meals provided. We saw that staff sought advice appropriately from health professionals and followed their recommendations.

People were supported to have control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way.

People told us that staff were kind and caring and they were enabled to retain as much independence as possible. Support was underpinned by detailed care plans which set out people’s needs and how they wished the support to be provided. Communication was effective and key information was handed over to other staff and relatives ensuring that people received consistency of care. There was a system in place to address peoples concerns.

The manager was accessible and there were clear arrangements in place to support people who used the service and staff outside of office hours. People and staff told us that the manager provided effective leadership and the service worked well. Regular audits and checks were undertaken to identify any shortfalls and to drive improvement.