Clarity Homecare Ashford

Updated 10 November 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one Inspector and an 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 and specialist housing.

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 who is also the provider.

There was also a new manager who had been in post for one month and had submitted an application to register. We are currently assessing this application.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was 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.

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 authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. 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 spoke with seven people, two relatives, four members of staff and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of care records. This included four people's care plans and associated records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment, supervision and training. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were also reviewed.

Updated 10 November 2022

About the service

Clarity Homecare is a domiciliary service providing personal care to people in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection there were 48 people using the service with seven receiving support with personal care relating to their physical conditions.

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

People we spoke with told us the service was safe, had a positive impact on them and was well led. One person told us, “I did have a long struggle in finding a service that would support me the way I wanted to be supported until I found this one.” And “I think with the help of the staff I have really moved forward.”

People were supported to remain safe with staff who could recognise potential signs of abuse and take correct action. Care plans detailed people’s needs and risks had been identified and assessed.

People were supported by staff who had been recruited safely, arrived on time and helped people to maximise their independence. Staff wore personal protective equipment to reduce risk of infection.

The registered manager, manager and staff had an open and transparent approach to learning lessons when things had gone wrong, reported incidents to the Care Quality Commission and raised safeguarding alerts to the local authority when required.

There was a positive culture amongst the service. People were complimentary of the management team and staff felt supported in their role. Regular checks and audits of the service were completed to ensure people were receiving good quality care and action was taken to improve this going forward as necessary.

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 good (Published September 2019)

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing and the quality of care people were receiving. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

Follow up

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