Stennack Homecare Limited

Stennack Homecare Limited is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal care to people living in their own houses or flats. At the time of our inspection there were 20 people using the service.

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

People we spoke with were positive about the agency and the support provided. People told us, “I am generally satisfied with the support I receive”, “Nothing is too much trouble for them [staff]” and “Having this support has given me some respite and peace of mind.”

Staff understood the importance of safeguarding people from the risk of abuse. Training was provided and regularly updated. Staff were reminded of safeguarding issues and practices in meetings to ensure information was up to date.

People told us they felt safe with their care workers. A relative said, “I don’t know what we would do without them. Yes, completely safe”. Staff were recruited safely and were deployed to suit the specific needs of people.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Most people administered their own medicines, but where staff supported people, they managed medicines according to national guidelines. Support for people was planned to ensure the persons needs and wishes were considered.

There were individual risk assessments which were person centred to ensure people were protected and could be supported safely. Staff knew clients well and demonstrated an understanding of their individual care, behavioural and communication needs. This helped ensure people’s views were heard and their diverse needs met.

Safe infection control measures were followed by staff and there was enough PPE available to support this.

Records showed staffing levels had recently been increased to ensure any gaps were filled. People told us this had improved visiting times. There was a good skill mix. A staff member told us, “We are a really strong team and support each other.” Three people using the service told us staffing had been an issue affecting call times. However, they told us this had improved, and it was rare for calls to be late. There was an ongoing recruitment process in place.

Staff were supported by a system of induction, training, supervisions, appraisals and staff meetings. Staff were appropriately trained, and their competency regularly checked, to ensure people’s needs were met.

There was a range of auditing systems in place and these were completed regularly and used to drive improvements. The registered manager had a clear role and their responsibilities were understood by the staff team.

People told us they had confidence in the registered manager. When things went wrong the registered manager reviewed how things were done to identify areas for improvement.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

We registered this service on 15 February 2022 and this was the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.