The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Home Instead Portsmouth as outstanding, following its first inspection in October.
The service is run by Portsmouth Elder Care Limited and provides care for older people in their own homes, some of whom are living with dementia. At the time of this inspection 23 people were using the service.
As well as Home Instead Portsmouth being rated as outstanding overall, it has also been rated outstanding for being caring and well-led. It has been rated good for how safe, effective and responsive the service is.
Neil Cox, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said:
When we inspected Home Instead Portsmouth, we found an exceptional service with people’s needs at its heart. Managers and staff went the extra mile to ensure people received the best possible care.
People were always treated as individuals with exceptional kindness and compassion. Staff consistently discussed people’s choices and explained their care, so people could give informed consent about their care. Also, staff spoke about the people they cared for with real empathy and warmth.
We heard about staff regularly going above and beyond their duties and people described them as attentive, friendly, and kind. We were told about thoughtful gestures which promoted people’s independence, such as staff ensuring before they left a care call that there was enough water in the kettle to enable one person to independently make cup of tea when they were alone, and staff supervising someone who wanted to do their own laundry in a discreet manner to make the person they supported feel more comfortable.
Home Instead Portsmouth has also taken a proactive approach to building relationships with local healthcare partners and the community. For example, they’ve delivered free dementia training to Portsmouth Football Club and a voluntary sector social club to help improve understanding and enable people living with dementia to access more activities in the local area.
Staff felt they were well supported at work and were always able to contact the office or on-call support during their care calls and received a warm, friendly response no matter what time they called
Everyone who works at Home Instead Portsmouth should be proud of the exceptional service they’ve created. Other service providers should look to this report to see if there’s anything they can learn from it, so people can receive outstanding care across the sector.
Inspectors also found:
- People and family members told inspectors they were happy with the care provided and the way it was organised, adding that they were involved in care planning and this was regularly reviewed to ensure information was up-to-date.
- Care was consistent and supported choice and continuity, based on people’s individual needs. Staff were always introduced to people before providing care for them and there was a high level of continuity in the people they supported.
- Staff were highly trained and had the right skills and experience to provide outstanding care and support to people.
- The service had a positive safety culture based on openness and honesty. They encouraged feedback, incidents were properly investigated and the service apologised when things went wrong.
- Staff understood their role in safeguarding people and were aware of people’s personal risks and how to mitigate these.
- Leaders were always visible, knowledgeable and extremely supportive. They helped staff develop in their roles to promote continuous improvement.
- Medicines were managed safely with processes to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed. Staff had their competency to give medicines assessed regularly.
The report will be published on the CQC website in the coming days.