Right at Home Basingstoke & District

Updated 29 July 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. 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 12 November and ended on 15 November 2019. We visited the office location on both days.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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. This information helps support our inspections. We also reviewed the provider’s website. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited three people in their own homes and spoke with relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with seven members of staff including the nominated individual, registered manager, quality support manager, care co-ordinator, quality lead and care workers. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and other documents sent. We sought feedback from the local authority and from two professionals who regularly work with the service.

Updated 29 July 2020

About the service

Right at Home Basingstoke is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to 22 people in their own homes.

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

People received support which was extremely responsive to their needs and reflected their preferences, choices and wishes in all aspects. Staff were highly skilled in supporting people to reduce their social isolation and engage them in their care and in activities which were of interest to them. The service provided outstanding end of life care.

Staff were exceptionally caring, compassionate and kind in their approach and reflected the values of the service, to treat people as they would one of their relatives. Staff respected people’s individuality, their identity and their independence. People and their families were supported to specify the care they wanted, and support plans were fully reflective of their wishes.

The service was safe, staff were vigilant to types of abuse or neglect and had been proactive in identifying concerns and reporting these. Medicines were managed safely. People’s risks were assessed, and their support plans guided staff to help minimise risks wherever possible.

Support was effective and reflected best practice guidance. Staff supported people effectively enabling them to have a good quality of life. People were supported to eat and drink enough. 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.

The service was well-led with the senior management team driving high quality and continuous improvement in all aspects of care. There were robust arrangements in place to monitor the quality of the service and the performance of staff.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 24 May 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.