Background to this inspection
Updated
15 January 2020
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, 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 carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type:
Home Instead Birmingham is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The registered manager is also the registered provider and they 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 site visit because the management team are often out supporting people. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
We made telephone calls to people and their relatives on 05 and 07 November 2019 and visited the service on 06 November 2019 to see the management team, meet staff and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
When planning our inspection, we reviewed any information we had received about the service. We also contacted the local authority for feedback about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection, we spoke with deputy manager, one co-ordinator, two supervisors and two care givers at the office and one supervisor and one care giver by telephone. We spoke by telephone with eight people who used the service and three relatives. We looked at six people’s care records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We also looked at medicine records, two staff recruitment files, quality monitoring records, survey satisfaction reports and newsletters.
Updated
15 January 2020
About the service:
Home Instead Birmingham is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. There were 93 people receiving personal care support at the time of the inspection.
People’s experience of using this service:
People and relatives were consistently complimentary about the kindness of the staff and the reliability of the service they received. We were told of occasions where staff had gone above and beyond what was expected of them and the positive impact on people’s wellbeing.
The management team had a clear ethos of putting people at the centre of all that the service did. This was shared with the staff team who were highly motivated and keen to support people to the best of their ability, and treating them with dignity and respect.
People appreciated the service's role in helping them to remain independent and valued the relationships they had formed with staff. People's care and support was planned in partnership with them. People were happy that they received care and support from staff that they had got to know well and had developed good relationships with. People were empowered to share their experiences which helped them feel valued.
People told us they felt safe with the support of staff. Risks to people had been assessed and staff had a good understanding of these risks and how to minimise them. People told us staff attended the calls at the appropriate time and stayed for the full duration of the call.
Where required people were supported to receive their medication as prescribed and staff had received training to ensure they were confident to provide this support.
People were supported by staff who had the skills to meet their needs. People were able to consent to their care and we saw staff understood the importance of seeking and recording people’s consent before providing support.
People’s nutritional needs were met, and people were happy with the support they received to enjoy a choice of meals. People were supported to access healthcare professionals when required.
People received individualised care and support from regular staff that demonstrated detailed knowledge of people’s individual needs. People told us they were involved in their care and their needs were assessed and reviewed on a regular basis. People’s care records were person centred and guided staff on the way they preferred their care and support to be provided.
People and relatives told us they had not needed to make a complaint but knew how to and would feel comfortable doing so should they need to. Where people had raised concerns, they advised the provider had taken prompt action to resolve the issue.
The management team had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service they provided and looked to develop the service further. People, their relatives and staff all spoke positively about the service and said it was well managed.
Rating at last inspection:
At the last inspection we rated Home Instead Birmingham as ‘Good’ (report published on 17 May 2017).
Why we inspected:
This was a planned inspection which took place on 06 November 2019. Telephone calls were made to people receiving care and their relatives on 05 and 07 November 2019.
Follow up:
We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.