23 January 2020
During a routine inspection
Relatives Relief is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care and support to adults and older people living within their own homes. 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 our inspection there were 41 people using the service in receipt of personal care.
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 24 January 2019) and whist there were no breaches of regulation we made several recommendations in relation to medicines best practice, staff training, the mental capacity act and its application and strengthening of quality audit processes. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made.
People's experience of using this service and what we found
The quality and safety of the service had improved since our last inspection. The registered manager ensured the required actions were taken and improvements were made in line with their improvement plan.
People and their relatives spoke positively about staff and told us they were happy with the service they received. People told us they felt safe and had not experienced any abuse, neglect or discrimination. People were protected from the risk of avoidable harm because risks were identified, assessed and managed safely by staff.
People's medicines were safely managed, and people were protected from the risk of infections. Lessons were learnt from accidents and incidents. There were sufficient staff available to support people's needs and appropriate robust recruitment practices were in place.
Staff were supported through induction, training and supervision to ensure they had the knowledge and skills to support people safely. People were supported where this was part of their plan of care to meet their nutrition and hydration needs.
People had access to healthcare services and staff worked in partnership with health and social care professionals. 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.
People were supported by staff that were kind and caring. People were involved in making decisions about their care and support needs and had choice and control over their lives. People's privacy and dignity was respected, and their independence promoted.
People told us they knew how to make a complaint. People's communication needs were assessed and met and people were provided with information in a format that met their needs. There were now systems in place to assess and monitor the quality and safety of the service and to continuously learn and drive improvements.
The service worked in partnership with key organisations to plan and deliver an effective service.
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 Requires Improvement (published 24 January 2019). At this inspection enough, improvement had been made/sustained, and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation or the recommendations made. The service is therefore rated good at this inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.