Archived: Care At Home

Updated 1 February 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by 1 inspector and an expert by experience in the care of older people, who made telephone calls to people and family members to gain their views about the service. 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.

Registered Manager

The provider was in day to day charge of the service and therefore was not required to have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The provider was therefore 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 notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 9 January 2023 and ended on 23 January 2023. We visited the location's office on 9 January 2023.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service, including previous inspection reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to send to us. 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.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people and 5 family members about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the provider, 4 office staff members and 2 care team members. We sought information from 5 external health or social care professionals and received feedback from 2 of them. We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people's care records and medication records. We looked at 4 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including, training, quality monitoring, policies and procedures were also reviewed.

Updated 1 February 2023

About the service

Care at Home is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care for people who

require this due to old age, illness or disability. At the time of the inspection the agency was providing a personal care service for 11 people living in the towns of Newport, Cowes, East Cowes and surrounding areas on the Isle of Wight. 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

We received positive feedback from people or their family members about the service they were receiving. Everyone spoke very highly of the care staff. People felt they were cared for with kindness and compassion.

People told us they felt safe and secure when receiving care. Medicines were safely managed; people were supported to meet their nutritional and hydration needs and staff contacted healthcare professionals when required. Staff followed all necessary infection prevention measures.

People told us they had been involved in care planning and care plans reflected people's individual needs and choices. Staff were responsive to people's needs, which were detailed in care plans which staff had access to via an electronic system. People's risk assessments and risks relating to their home environment were completed and helped reduce risks to people.

Safe recruitment practices were followed and appropriate checks were undertaken, which helped make sure only suitable staff were employed to care for people in their own homes. There were enough care staff to maintain the schedule of visits.

Staff told us they felt supported, received regular supervision and training and had time to complete their schedule of work.

People had regular contact from the provider and office staff who undertook some care visits. People and staff were confident office staff would listen to them and take any necessary action should the need arise. The provider, office staff and care staff team where committed to ensuring people received a service which was caring.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 11 July 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by the length of time since the previous inspection.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained Good.

Follow up

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