My Choice Home Care

Updated 26 October 2022

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 Act.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

An inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

My Choice Home Care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection 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 16 September and ended on 6 October 2022. We visited the service on 28 September 2022.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local commissioners 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 all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We contacted four people who used the service and nine relatives. We spoke with the provider, deputy manager and three staff members. We also received feedback from seven more staff.

We reviewed a range of records, which included four people’s care records, medicine records, staff files and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

Updated 26 October 2022

About the service

My Choice Home Care is a service registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes in the Consett area. At the time of our inspection there were 39 people using the service.

Not everyone using My Choice Home Care has to receive a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with '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 reported they were extremely satisfied with the service. People and relatives said staff excelled at their jobs and always went above and beyond in delivering the care. They described the little extras staff just did as a part of their job. Some people commented this had never occurred when they had used other home care provision.

Staff were passionate about providing good care outcomes and took ownership for their practice. People found the service provided a high standard of care and the quality of staff working with them was exemplary.

Staff found the management team's expectation to treat everyone compassionately, give people all the time they needed, treat each person as an individual and look after the individual as if they were a relative was an excellent approach to adopt. Staff found this enabled them to really work to their best and they really loved working for the company.

The management team had created an extremely robust governance system, which rapidly identified the smallest of issue, which was then quickly addressed.

There were enough staff on duty to cover the care packages. Staff reported the rotas were very well organised and enabled them to easily travel to deliver each care package and have enough time to properly support people. An effective recruitment programme was in place.

Medicines management was effective and closely monitored. Staff who administered medicines had the appropriate training.

Staff adhered to COVID regulations and procedures. The registered manager ensured staff had access to ample supplies of PPE and they completed regular spot checks to make sure staff complied with the guidance and best practice.

Staff had received training around the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and associated code of practice and felt confident applying this in their practice. 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.

Staff took steps to safeguard people and promote their human rights. The management team confirmed they took all concerns seriously and determined what lessons could be learnt. Since started no one had needed to make a formal complaint.

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 good (published 11 August 2017).

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.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for My Choice Home Care 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.