Safehands Homecare

Updated 24 April 2019

This 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 was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type: The service is a ‘domiciliary care agency’ providing care to people in their own homes. The service was registered to support older and younger people, some of whom may be living with a dementia related condition.

Safehands Homecare supports people with personal care and social support in the Scarborough and Pickering areas of North Yorkshire. At the time of the inspection 26 people were receiving support.

The service has a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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: Inspection site visit activity started on 1 April 2019 and ended on 2 April 2019. We visited the office location on both dates to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

The inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small, and we needed to be sure that the manager would be available to speak with us.

What we did: Before the inspection we reviewed information available to us about this service. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about. We sought feedback from the local authority safeguarding and commissioning teams. The provider sent us a provider information return prior to the 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 the registered manager, the health and safety manager and two staff. We spoke with six people who used the service and three relatives. We looked at three people's care records, including their care plans and risk assessments. We looked at medication administration records and observed a member of staff administering medicines. We also looked at a selection of documentation about the management and running of the service. This included quality assurance processes and recruitment information for three staff.

Updated 24 April 2019

About the service: Safehands Homecare is a 'domiciliary care agency' providing personal care and support to people in their own homes. The service was providing a regulated activity of personal care to 26 older people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service: Issues found under the safe and well-led domains at the last inspection, relating to staff recruitment checks, recording of medicines administration and governance of the service had been addressed.

Recruitment processes had been improved and checks were in place to ensure staff were suitable to work in a care environment. People's medicines were administered as prescribed and recorded appropriately. The registered manager demonstrated an open and honest approach which supported staff to understand the values of high quality person-centred caring. Some audits to monitor the quality and safety of the service to drive improvements, were being developed and enhanced.

People were protected from avoidable harm and abuse by staff who could identify and report safeguarding concerns. People received assessments and support and staff followed guidance where risks were evident to keep people safe.

People told us they received their services on time and that staff were appropriately trained to meet their needs. An induction was completed by new staff and annual training supported staff to enable them to carry out their role effectively. Some specialist training specific to people’s individual needs had been sourced through the local hospice and the community district nursing team.

Staff could tell us how they built trusting relationships with people. Comments from people confirmed that staff maintained their dignity, privacy and promoted their independent living skills.

Staff understood their responsibilities in relation to the mental capacity legislation. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Care plans had been reviewed and updated to contain more person-centred information. The registered manager advised this was a ‘work in progress’ to ensure all personalised information was captured. Staff could identify when people required additional input from health professionals and followed any advice to meet people's specific needs.

People were supported by staff to attend health care appointments and encouraged to participate in activities and events in their local community. Not all people had end of life care plans in place to ensure their wishes were respected. This was an area the provider had identified for further development and had arranged end of life care training for all staff with the local hospice.

Complaints had been addressed in line with the providers policies and procedures. People told us they knew how to make a complaint and would be confident any concerns would be addressed.

Rating at last inspection: Requires Improvement (Published 13 April 2018).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor this service and inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule or sooner if we receive information of concern.

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