Home Instead Durham

Updated 17 November 2023

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

An inspector and an Expert by Experience carried out this inspection. 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

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 20 July 2023 and ended on 4 August 2023. We visited the location’s office on 20 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 14 June 2023 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 13 people and 6 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people's care records, with accompanying documentation. We spoke with 27 members of staff, including the registered manager, nominated individual and support staff. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We spoke with 4 external professionals about the service.

Updated 17 November 2023

About the service

Home Instead Durham is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to older people, people living with physical disabilities and people living with a dementia. At the time of inspection, the service was providing personal care to 58 people.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

At our last inspection we found that the service provided exceptional care and support that had transformed lives. Since then staff had continued to provide outstanding and distinctive care. Respect for privacy and dignity was at the heart of the service’s culture and values. Staff were very effective at delivering the support people wanted and had professional but close relationships with them and their relatives. The service was highly adept helping people to express their views so that staff and managers at all levels understood their preferences, wishes and choices.

The service had a track record of being an excellent role model for other services and driving improvement. The provider and registered manager continued to develop and innovate in the support they provided. External professionals said they had excellent working relationships with the service and said it stood out for the quality of care provided. People and relatives said the way the service was led was exceptional and distinctive. Staff were motivated by and proud of the service, which they said was unlike any other they had worked for. Effective governance systems were in place to monitor and improve standards. Feedback was sought and acted on.

Risks to people were assessed and safely managed. The service continued to embed the effective risk management systems we saw at our last inspection. People were safeguarded from abuse. Staffing levels were carefully monitored to ensure people received safe support from staff. The provider had a safe and effective recruitment process. People’s medicines were managed safely. The provider had safe infection prevention and control systems in place.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was outstanding (published 2 May 2018).

Why we inspected

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

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained the same. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Home Instead Durham on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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