Aylsham Homecare

Updated 24 May 2019

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.

Service and service type:

• Aylsham Homecare is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their homes.

• The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The manager was also the provider. This means that they 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 visit because it is small and the manager may be out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

• Our inspection process commenced on 25 March and ended on 28 March. We visited the office location on 25 March to see the manager and care staff.

What we did:

• Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service, including any statutory notifications. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. The provider had completed a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

• We spoke with three people who used the service and three relatives.

• We spoke with the registered manager, the assistant manager, a senior carer and two care assistants.

• We received feedback from a GP and local authority safeguarding social workers.

• We reviewed three people’s care records and documentation relating to the management and governance of the service.

Updated 24 May 2019

About the service: Aylsham Homecare is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to older people, some of whom may be living with dementia. It was providing support to 17 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People and relatives told us the registered manager and care staff were exceptionally caring. This was evident in the whole ethos of the organisation.

• People received highly personalised care from staff who knew them extremely well.

• Staff developed open and highly trusting relationships with people and their relatives and this maximised the benefit of the care provided.

• People were encouraged to have a voice. Equality and diversity was promoted and staff made every effort to ensure people’s needs were met.

• People and relatives spoke of the service going above and beyond their expectations.

• People were encouraged to live their lives as independently as possible and they were supported to integrate into the community and socialise where possible. The service actively helped people avoid social isolation.

• Staff respected people’s right to privacy and ensured people’s dignity was upheld.

• Staff responded exceptionally well to any changes in people’s needs and ensured there was an open and collaborative approach to developing peoples care packages.

• People were actively encouraged to voice any concerns. People and relatives had confidence that any issues would be effectively resolved as soon as possible.

• The registered manager demonstrated exceptional leadership which positively impacted on people’s lives and the whole organisation.

• The registered manager had developed strong community links which benefitted people.

• Staff were very well supported and their views and opinions were listened to, when discussing service improvements.

• Staff were provided with equal and inclusive opportunities to progress their careers within the service.

• Staff ensured people were always provided with care that kept them safe.

• Staff recruitment and training was very good.

• People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible.

• People were encouraged to live healthy lives and to ensure their diet and intake of fluids supported their wellbeing.

• The service met the characteristics of outstanding in caring, responsive and well-led.

Rating at last inspection:

• Good (report was published 12 September 2016)

Why we inspected:

• This was a planned inspection to check that this service remained Good.

Follow up:

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

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