Home Instead Barnet

Updated 21 December 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

The inspection was conducted by 1 inspector and 1 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

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 short 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 13 November and ended on 23 November 2023. We visited the location’s office on 16 November 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 authorities 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 all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 4 care staff and the nominated individual. We looked at a range of care records, including 3 people's care and risk management plans, 3 staff recruitment files, and a variety of records relating to medicines support and the management of the service. We also spoke to 7 relatives and 3 people who used the service by telephone.

Updated 21 December 2023

About the service

Home Instead Barnet is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to predominately older adults with physical disabilities or those living with dementia.

Not everyone using the service receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection the service was providing personal care services to 22 people.

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

Feedback from people who used the service, their relatives, and staff was consistently positive.

People felt safe, and the service met their care and support needs. The provider developed care plans with people and their relatives that set out their likes, care preferences and communication needs.

The provider assessed and planned for any to risk to people’s safety and wellbeing. Staff supported people with their medicines safely. There were systems in place to help protect people from abuse and to investigate and learn when things went wrong.

People were usually visited by the same care workers who they were on time and familiar with their care needs. There was a positive culture and staff were very proud to work for the provider. Staff were empowered to achieve the best outcomes for people through a supportive teamwork approach to their work.

Staff received training and regular supervision and felt supported in their roles by the registered manager and office staff. There were recruitment processes in place to help make sure only suitable staff were employed.

There were audit systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and identify when improvements were required. People and staff were asked to give feedback about the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

At the last inspection we rated this service Good. The report was published on 10 August 2018.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, and Well Led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

Follow up

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