Your Own Home Care

Updated 11 January 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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 site visit activity started on 6 December 2017 and ended on 18 December 2017. It was an announced visit. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. We visited the office location on 6 and 8 December 2017 to see the manager and to review care records and policies and procedures.

The inspection was carried out by one inspector who visited the office and spoke with staff. A second inspector made telephone calls to people and their relatives after the office visit.

Before the inspection the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). We used information the provider sent us in the 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 reviewed notifications and any other information we had received since the last inspection. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

Before the inspection we sent out questionnaires to people, their relatives, staff and community professionals. We have used the feedback in our judgement about the service.

We spoke with four people who were receiving care and support, and four relatives. We spoke with the registered manager and five care staff. Following the office visit we sent requests to staff and relatives to provide feedback about the service. We reviewed four staff recruitment files and five care plans within the service and cross referenced practice against the provider’s own policies and procedures.

We also contacted social care and healthcare professionals with knowledge of the service.

Updated 11 January 2018

This inspection took place on 6, 8 and 18 December 2017. It was an announced visit to the service.

Your Own Home Care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. The office is based in a village in east Buckinghamshire.

The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We previously inspected the service on 23 and 25 November 2016 and 2 December 2016. We made two recommendations at the last inspection. We found improvements were required in the training of staff to ensure they were able to administer medicine safely. At this inspection we found improvements had been made. We also made a recommendation about ensuring the provider’s policies were followed in respect of support for staff. At this inspection we found some improvements had been made. However, we found ongoing issues with the connection between the provider’s policies and what happened in practice. The registered manager did not ensure all accidents and incidents were recorded. Relatives told us that when accidents occurred staff had managed the situation well. We have made a recommendation about this in the report Care plans were not always accurate. For instance one person’s name was incorrect within the care plan. We have made a recommendation about this in the report.

People gave us positive feedback about their experience of the service. This was supported by what relatives told us. Comments included “They [Staff] are patient and kind,” “The staff are very friendly, very nice, there hasn’t been anyone who has taken objection to me or me to them” and “The girls [Staff] are so lovely.” One relative told us “They [Staff] are all very professional, they are caring and each of them are helpful in lots of different ways.”

People were supported by staff with the right skills and attributes as the service had a robust recruitment process. All the required checks were made.

Where people required support with their nutritional needs, this was detailed in the person’s care plan.

People told us they had developed good working relationships with staff. Systems were in place for people to provide feedback to the registered manager about their care.

Staff told us they felt supported by the registered manager and that there was a commitment to provide a quality service.

Staff were knowledgeable about people’s likes and dislikes. The registered manager sought feedback from staff on improving the support provided to people.