Background to this inspection
Updated
13 January 2021
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 Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
This inspection was carried out by one inspector and an assistant inspector. The assistant inspector contacted people who used the service for their experiences about the care and support they received.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
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
We gave the service over 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since their last inspection. We contacted staff, service users and their family members for their experiences.
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke over the telephone with seven people and four relatives who used the service about their experience of the care provided. During the inspection process we spoke with nine staff. We also spoke with the registered manager and director of operations about the service.
We reviewed a range of records we requested from the provider. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment, training and staff supervision. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and quality assurance reports and surveys.
Updated
13 January 2021
About the service:
Hales Group Limited – Norwich is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to adults living in their own homes, so they can live as independently as possible. At the time of this inspection 117 people were using the service.
People's experience of using this service:
The management and staff team worked to ensure people's care and support needs were met. However, feedback from people we spoke with confirmed improvements were still needed. People were happy with staff and the care received but were not happy with the inconsistent call times and not knowing who would attend the calls. People told us they would like to have regular times and staff.
People using the service and relatives confirmed they were happy with the care they received and talked about staff positively. They confirmed staff supported them in a kind and caring way.
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. Systems used to manage visit times did not always support people’s preferences.
The provider had quality monitoring processes to review the service. However, not all people’s support needs were managed appropriately around home visit times and communicating changes.
The registered manager demonstrated their commitment to learn lessons and improve the service where required. People and staff confirmed they were given opportunities to make suggestions and provide feedback about the service.
Rating at last inspection:
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 5 July 2019). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.
Why we inspected:
We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-Led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. However, we have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe and Well-Led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Hales Group Limited – Norwich on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Follow up:
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk