Helping Hands Tunbridge Wells

Updated 23 January 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the registered provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

Helping Hands Tunbridge Wells is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own homes.

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 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and 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 spoke by telephone with five people who used the service and with five relatives. We also spoke by telephone with four care staff.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it was registered with us. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

We looked at other information we held about the service. This included any notifications of incidents the registered provider had sent us. These are events happening in the service registered providers are required to tell us about.

Due to technical problems the registered provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require registered 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 judgements in this inspection report.

During the inspection

We spoke with the care services coordinator, registered manager and area manager at the service’s office.

We reviewed documents and records that described how care had been provided for five people. We also examined documents and records relating to how the service was run including health and safety, the management of medicines, learning lessons when things had gone wrong, obtaining consent and staff training.

Updated 23 January 2020

About the service

Helping Hands Tunbridge Wells is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care. At this inspection the service was providing personal care for 35 people. The service can provide care for older people and people living with dementia and/or mental health needs. It can also care for people with learning adaptive needs/autism and people with eating disorders.

Personal care was provided by a team of care staff completing care calls to people in their own homes.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care, where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

People's experience of using the service and what we found

People and their relatives were positive about the service. A person said, “The staff are very kind to me and I’m happy to use the service.”

People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse. They received safe care and treatment in line with national guidance. There were enough care staff to reliably complete care calls on time and safe recruitment practices were in place. People were supported to safely manage medicines, lessons had been learned when things had gone wrong and good standards of hygiene were promoted.

Care staff had received introductory and refresher training and guidance. They had the knowledge and skills they needed to provide safe care. People had been helped to obtain medical attention when necessary and to receive consistent care when they moved between service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and care 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 received compassionate care, their dignity was promoted and their right to privacy was respected. They were also supported to express their views about things important to them.

People were consulted about their care and given information in a user-friendly way. People were supported to pursue their hobbies and interests. There was a procedure for quickly resolving complaints and provision was in place to ensure people were supported at the end of their lives to have a dignified death.

Quality checks had been completed. People had been consulted about the development of the service and their suggestions had been implemented. Good team work was promoted, regulatory requirements had been met and joint working was promoted.

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

Rating at last inspection

The service was registered with us on 10 January 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date the service was registered with us.

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.