Alina Homecare Bromsgrove

Updated 9 May 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, 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 team consisted of 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:

Alina Homecare 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 service 72 hours’ notice of the inspection visit. We needed to be sure the registered manager was available to facilitate this inspection and that people were informed we would be visiting and contacting them by telephone.

What we did:

We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. (PIR) This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We looked at information we held about the service including notifications they had made to us about important events. We also reviewed all other information sent to us from other stakeholders for example the local authority and members of the public.

Inspection site visit activity started on 26 February 2019 and ended on 05 March 2019. We visited the office location on 26 and 27 February 2019 to see the registered manager and staff. We reviewed 12 people's care records and medicine administration records (MAR), policies and procedures, records relating to the management of the service, audits, training records and recruitment records of 10 care staff. We spoke with five care staff during our visit and visited three people and a relative of a person receiving support in their own home.

The expert by experience spoke with seven people and eight relatives by telephone and the inspector also completed a further four telephone calls to two people and two relatives. This meant we captured the opinion of 12 people and 11 relatives altogether.

Updated 9 May 2019

About the service: Alina Homecare is a domiciliary care agency, which provides personal care and support to people in their own home. At the time of the inspection, there were 160 people receiving a regulated service.

People’s experience of using this service:

People valued their relationships with staff. People felt well cared for and that they mattered. Comments included; “We refer to them as our friends and that’s what they are. I don’t feel like they are just there for [person’s name]. They are genuinely there for me too. They are central to what keeps all this going”, “They’re my life. They are my security blanket and I have needed one a lot of times. My carer is what has kept me alive, I am not lying, I have been so poorly and they’re there for me. I love [staff name]. I feel proud to know them and to be seen out with them when we go shopping.”

Risk assessments, care plans and documentation were person centred and comprehensive, identified risks were well-managed. The service focused upon a person’s whole life to promote their wellbeing and gave people an outstanding quality of life.

People were supported by staff who promoted their independence as much as possible, and who were creative in their ways of achieving better outcomes for people. People told us carers were motivated to make a difference and that they made them feel inspired and gave them confidence to make the required changes.

People were cared for by a staff team who received tailored training, which reflected their individual needs and supported how they wanted and needed to receive their care. People spoke of highly trained staff that were observant of changes in their needs and that medical emergencies had been identified and responded to because of the carers attention to detail.

There was a culture of learning and evolving from experiences with prompt and positive action taken when something had gone wrong. Staff felt confident in reporting procedures and described feeling supported and appreciated by management.

There were highly effective quality assurance systems in place. Action was taken to address areas where practice could be enhanced, and as a result, changes had been made to help ensure the service moved forward and continually improved.

The service had gone ‘above and beyond’ to deliver safe care to people when another provider had left people without support.

Rating at last inspection: The service was last inspected 31 May 2016 and was rated Good. The report was published 09 August 2016. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection when the service was rated as Good. At this inspection we found the overall rating for this service had improved to Outstanding.

Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor intelligence about this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Outstanding. If we receive any information of concern, we may inspect sooner.