Solihull Home Care

Updated 7 June 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection Team: One inspector.

Service and service type: Solihull Home Care provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. This can be by way of individual care calls or live in care staff. CQC regulates the personal care provided. 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: The inspection took place on 2 May 2019 and was announced. Phone calls to people and staff took place on 3 and 7 May 2019. We gave the registered manager 48 hours’ notice to ensure that people who received the service and staff would be available to speak with us.

What we did when preparing for and carrying out this inspection: We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as potential abuse, information from the public, whistle blowing concerns and information shared with us by local commissioners (who commission services of care). The commissioners had no concerns about the service. The registered manager had completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). The PIR is a form that asks the registered provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. The registered manager was given the opportunity to provide further information during the inspection process.

During our inspection visit we spoke with one person and three relatives to understand their experience of the care provided to them or their family members. We spoke with three care staff, one team leader, one care administrator and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. For example, we looked at three people's care records and a sample of medicine records. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service. These included staff rotas, compliments and feedback from people who used the service. We looked at the provider’s checks on the quality and safety of care provided that assured them they delivered the best service they could. We checked two staff files to ensure they had been recruited safely.

Updated 7 June 2019

About the service: Solihull Home Care is a family run service which provides personal care and support to people who live in their own homes. This can be older people who may have physical health needs, or people living with dementia. At the time of our visit there were 13 people who received personal care support.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People felt safe receiving care from staff and with the staff that supported them with care.

• The provider’s recruitment procedures had ensured staff were safely recruited.

• Risks related to people’s health were identified and acted upon.

• Staff knew how to protect people from potential abuse and avoidable harm to keep them safe.

• Medicines were managed safely, and people received them as prescribed.

• There were enough staff to support people’s needs including any emergency care needs.

• People's needs were assessed before they started at the service and staff completed training to ensure these needs could be met safely and effectively.

• People said staff were very caring and kind in their approach and knew them well.

• Staff supported people consistently and this enabled them to provide them with care and support in ways they preferred.

• People were provided with support to access healthcare professionals when needed.

• People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

• People’s care plans contained detailed information for staff to ensure people received the personalised care and support they had agreed.

• Staff understood the importance of respecting people’s privacy and dignity.

• People were supported to be as independent as possible.

• The provider had various quality monitoring systems to check people received safe care and support in accordance with the providers policies and procedures.

• Overall, people were extremely happy with the care received from Solihull Home Care. People knew how to make a complaint should they have any concerns about the service.

• Where concerns were identified, for examples referrals to the safeguarding team, these had not always been notified to us in a timely way, to enable us to monitor the service.

We found the service met the characteristics of ‘Good’. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection: ‘Good’. The last report for Solihull Home Care was published on 29 September 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. The previous ‘good’ service provided to people remains unchanged.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.