Sweet Tree Home Care in Swiss Cottage, north west London, has retained its overall rating of Outstanding, following a recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Sweet Tree Home Care is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people living in their own homes. CQC only inspects domiciliary services that provide people with personal care, such as help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating.
At the time of the inspection in November, the service was providing care to around 285 people with a range of issues, including older people living with dementia, people with brain injuries or neurological conditions, and people with learning disabilities.
Inspectors reviewed the service as part of a pilot scheme introduced to look at new and innovative ways of fulfilling CQC’s regulatory obligations and responding to risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant that information was gathered with the consent of the provider and obtained without visiting the service, through video calls, phone calls and electronic file sharing.
Following this inspection, the provider was rated Outstanding overall and Outstanding for being well-led, and Good in relation to whether it was safe. It was inspected but not rated for being effective, caring and responsive. The service was previously rated Outstanding overall when it was last inspected in October 2017.
CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care, South and London, Deborah Ivanova, said:
“People using Sweet Tree Home Care, and their relatives, gave our inspectors excellent feedback about the service. Along with external health and social care providers, service users all felt that the staff had dealt admirably with the challenges posed by the pandemic, and everyone we spoke to said that they would recommend the service to others.
“We were pleased to find that the provider had continued to build on the high standards we reported following our previous inspection and had launched a range of new initiatives to support people using the service, such as an upgraded website and an improved reporting system for complaints.
“We also found that the provider had responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in a systematic and well thought out way, with regular infection control training and practical and emotional support offered to people using the service, as well as their families and staff. All of this meant that the service was providing the best care during the most challenging time, and the whole team at Sweet Tree Home Care deserves to be congratulated.”
CQC inspectors found:
- The governance of the service was outstanding and highly effective.
- The service had introduced a range of initiatives to support the local community, such as running webinars about coronavirus and dementia. It also worked with the Skills for Care charity and chaired the London Central manager network which provides support for registered managers from other services in London during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Staff knew what was expected of them, as their roles were clearly defined. People were given responsibilities to match their skills, experience and interests. They were also closely supervised and regularly monitored.
- Staff were extremely caring for people who used the service, and their families. People who use the service were encouraged to nominate staff for the annual Sweet awards to recognise those who provided the best care.
- Staff supported people using the service to fulfil their potential, with detailed and personalised care plans formulated in conjunction with the individual and their family.
- Medicines were managed safely, and people were protected from abuse by appropriately recruited and trained staff.
- People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. Care was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights.
- People reported that they were given plenty of opportunity to provide feedback about the service. When issues arose, they were quickly and satisfactorily dealt with.
CQC carried out telephone interviews with 17 people using the service and 57 family members who gave feedback on behalf of relatives who could not represent themselves due to their health condition. CQC also emailed and asked for feedback from care staff employed by the service and 15 staff responded. Feedback was also received from 20 external health and social care professionals.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on the CQC website here.
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