Hartley Home Care

Updated 8 May 2021

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, 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 two Experts 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

Hartley Home Care is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes in the community. This includes people with physical disabilities and dementia care needs. The service mainly provides personal care for people in short visits at key times of the day to help people get up in the morning, go to bed at night and support with meals.

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

The inspection was announced. We announced the inspection a few days in advance to ensure appropriate management would be available to participate in the inspection process and to make arrangements for information to be shared with the Commission before the site visit.

Inspection activity started on 8 April 2021 and ended on 16 April 2021. We visited the office location on 13 April 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and the information we had requested when the inspection was announced.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We spoke with 25 people who used the service and 12 relatives. We received feedback from 24 staff. We sought feedback from a social care professional who had regularly worked with the service.

We visited the service’s office and spoke with the registered and service managers and five members of the management team who were responsible for specific areas of the running of the service. We looked at a range of care records in relation to people who used the service, staff recruitment and training records, quality assurance records and information related to the running of the service.

After the inspection visit

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We reviewed the additional documentation we had requested from the registered manager prior and during the site visit.

Updated 8 May 2021

About the service

Hartley Home Care is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes in the community. When we inspected the service was providing the regulated activity, personal care, to approximately 170 people in the Camelford, Bodmin, Bude, Launceston, Liskeard and surrounding areas in Cornwall.

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

At our last inspection people were at risk of harm because visit times were inconsistent and sometimes missed. Systems to record people’s agreed times were not robust and rotas were not effectively managed. People did not always receive the care and support they needed at the agreed times or have consistent staff teams.

At this inspection people told us they received their visits at the agreed times. No one reported having had a missed visit. People told us issues that had concerned them at the last inspection, such as inconsistent visits, had been resolved and the service had improved. People told us they were happy with the service they received and had regular staff who arrived on time. Comments included, "I know what time they are coming", "Very happy with the service", “The rota seems to work for me and my relative, they asked us what times we needed and worked it out with us” and “They turn up okay and stay for the right time. They let me know if they're going to be late.”

The service had introduced new electronic rostering, call monitoring and care planning systems and this together with the more clearly defined management and office staff structure had improved the reliability and running of the service.

Staff told us rotas had improved, were available on their phones, and any changes were communicated to them in a timely manner. Some staff commented that travel time was not always included in their rotas. The manager said rotas were being reviewed to plan the appropriate amount of travel time between each visit, as it varied between areas.

Care plans were in place for everyone using the service. The service used an electronic care planning system and staff accessed this on their mobile phones. The information generated by this system was accurate, timely and gave staff enough detail to provide the right care and support for people.

Staff were recruited safely. The service had continued to recruit throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure there were enough staff to cover for sickness or for staff who needed to shield or self-isolate. Where the service had started to work in a new geographical area enough staff, local to that area, had been recruited.

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.

Systems were in place to ensure the effective management of medicines. Staff who were administering medication had been trained and had their competencies checked to ensure correct procedures were followed.

Staff were aware of the government guidance on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves and aprons.

People, their relatives and staff told us management were approachable and they listened to them when they had any concerns or ideas. All feedback was used to make continuous improvements to 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 and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement. (Report published on 10 May 2019) and there were two breaches of the regulations. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

The inspection was carried out to follow up on the action we told the provider to take at the last inspection. As a result, we carried out this focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe, Effective and Well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. 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 Hartley Home Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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