Heart and hands South

Updated 16 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

The inspection was undertaken by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides 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 provider one hour’s notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or 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 registration. 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager and the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. These included, three staff recruitment files, staff rotas and policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We spoke with three relatives of people who received care and support. We spoke with two staff and received written feedback from a third staff member.

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. The registered manager provided us with further documents we requested, including medicines records and risk assessments.

Updated 16 January 2021

About the service

Heart and Hands South is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

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

Relatives gave us positive feedback about the care provided by the staff.

People had risk assessments in place which identified individual risks to them, for example, from their mobility and the home environment. However, risk assessments did not identify all risks and therefore did not show what action staff should take to mitigate those risks. Personal information and records held for people and staff were not stored securely. There was a lack of guidance for staff to support people with medicines which were only needed sometimes. The provider did not have an effective system in place to ensure new staff were safe to work with people who received care. The quality assurance system had not identified the concerns we found during this inspection.

The provider and registered manager took care to only offer new people a service if they had enough staff to meet their needs. Staff had received training in safeguarding. We were assured staff were using personal protective equipment effectively. The registered manager notified the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of any specific incidents or accidents. The registered manager sought the views of people using the service. The service had formed relationships with other professionals involved in people’s health and social care

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 5 April 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The service has not been inspected since it was registered. We therefore undertook a focussed inspection to look at the safe and well-led outcomes for people.

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.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.