Right at Home (Ealing, Hounslow, Hammersmith and Fulham)

About the service

Right at Home (Ealing, Hounslow, Hammersmith and Fulham) is a care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes in North-West London. 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 the inspection 14 people were receiving support with personal care.

The agency is registered to provide care to older and younger adults, including people with learning disabilities. At the time of the inspection, most people receiving care were older adults.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support: The staff supported people to make choices and have control over their care. Staff focused on people's strengths and encouraged them to be independent when possible. The staff supported people to help make sure they were safe. Staff supported people with their medicines.

Right Care: Staff understood people's diverse needs. People received kind and compassionate care. Staff respected people's privacy and dignity. People's individual needs were planned for and met. Staff were well trained so they understood how to care for people well.

Right culture: People received good quality care. Staff understood about best practice. Staff felt well supported and enjoyed working at the service. The agency was developing links with the local community and looking at ways they could meet a range of different needs in addition to providing personal care and support, for example facilitating events for people with dementia.

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.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 26 May 2018).

Why we inspected

We had not inspected this service for over 5 years, and we needed to check that they were still providing good quality and safe care.

Follow up

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

This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered at the current location in August 2017. Before this the provider ran the same service from a different location. The most recent inspection at that location was in July 2016 when we rated the service Good.

Right at Home (Ealing, Hounslow, Hammersmith and Fulham) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. The provider supported some people with shopping and housekeeping. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only regulates the personal care element of the service. At the time of our inspection 24 people were using the service. The majority of people were older adults, some who were living with the experience of dementia. The provider also offered a service to younger adults with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and mental health needs. Some people using the service had care and support from staff who lived with them. The provider employed these staff through an international company and provided them with training, support and supervision whilst they were working in this role.

This was the only location for the registered provider Sofin Care Limited. The provider was operating the service as a franchise which was part of the Right at Home group. The franchisor supported the individual providers including developing policies and procedures and with quality assurance. The individual franchisees were able to make decisions about their own service and how this was run. The owner of Sofin Care Limited was the nominated individual. They worked closely as part of the management team at the service, providing support, training and information for staff.

The staff employed to provide care for people were known as care givers.

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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People using the service were happy with the care and support they received. They said that they felt their needs were being met by kind, caring and compassionate staff. They had been asked to contribute to their care plans and had consented to their care and treatment. They explained that care needs were regularly reviewed and they had contact with the office staff who kept them informed about any changes to their care package. Care givers arrived on time and stayed for the agreed amount of time.

The care givers felt supported by the provider, registered manager and senior staff. They said they had enough information to carry out their roles safely. They had opportunities for training and regular meetings with the registered manager. There were procedures which ensured that the staff who were recruited were suitable and had an induction into their role. There were regular spot checks to make sure the care givers were supporting people appropriately.

The provider had procedures designed to safeguard people from abuse and for dealing with accidents, incidents and complaints. Risks to people's safety and wellbeing had been assessed and planned for. People received their medicines in a safe way and as prescribed.

People's needs were assessed and care plans were developed to show how the agency would meet these assessed needs. They were regularly reviewed and updated to reflected changes in people's needs or conditions. People were supported to access healthcare services and there was evidence the staff had liaised with other healthcare professionals when they needed to. Some people received support to eat and drink and they were happy with this support.

The provider had effective systems for identifying risks, monitoring and improving the quality of the service. There were regular management meetings where the nominated individual and registered manager planned ways to improve and develop the service. People using the service and other stakeholders were invited to give their feedback about the service, and this was incorporated into planning for the future.