Great North Home Care Limited

Updated 12 August 2024

Great North Home Care is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care to older people, including people who may live with dementia, people with mental health needs or people with a learning disability or autism spectrum disorder, living in their own homes. At the time of inspection there were 12 people using the service and 6 were receiving the regulated activity 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. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. The service was previously inspected in May 2019 and was rated good. Following information of concern received by the CQC, a focused unannounced assessment was carried out. Off site assessment activity started on 5 September 2024 and ended on 2 October 2024. At this assessment we found the service was meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, Right care, Right culture. Systems were in place to provide safe effective care and person-centred support to people. There were sufficient trained staff who worked well with other professionals to ensure people's needs were met. Detailed records provided guidance to ensure people received safe, person-centred care. An effective governance system was in place.

Updated 12 August 2024

People and relatives were complimentary about the care provided by staff. They said staff were kind and caring and supportive. Their comments included, “I am very happy [Name] is well looked after, they [staff] are fantastic”, “It is brilliant all round” and “The agency is really good, the best we have had.” Rosters were well-managed, so people received safe, timely and consistent care from the same staff. People spoke positively about the staff approach and staff attitude and felt staff understood people's needs well. People received their medicines in a safe way. A relative told us, “I look after the medicine side and pass it to staff to give [Name] and then I’ll check they have had it.” Information was available about people if they moved between services to ensure their safety and continuity of care. Equipment was available to meet people’s needs and to help maintain their independence. People’s mental capacity and ability to consent was taken into account, and people and their representatives were involved in planning their care and support. They told us staff were trained to meet their care and support needs.