We carried out a review of the data available to us about Helping Hands Folkestone on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Helping Hands Folkestone, you can give feedback on this service.
Helping Hands Folkestone is a Domiciliary Care Agency providing personal care to older people and people living with dementia 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. The service was providing personal care for 10 people at the time of inspection.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People told us they felt safe and staff knew how to protect people from abuse and avoidable harm. Risks to people were managed to support people’s health, safety and wellbeing.
People received their care visits as planned from consistent and safely recruited staff. Where required people were supported to take their medicines safely as prescribed.
The service had managed well during covid-19 and effective prevention and control of infection systems were in place. Lessons were learnt from accidents and incidents to prevent them happening again.
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.
People received effective needs assessments and had clear care plans in place to enable staff to meet their needs. Staff worked with other health care professionals to ensure peoples health care needs were met. This included people’s needs in relation to equality and diversity such as their religion and culture.
Staff were competent and skilled and received all the training and support they needed to fulfil their role. Where required people were supported to ensure their dietary needs were met.
Staff were kind and caring with people and respected their rights to privacy and dignity. All feedback we received from people and their loved ones was positive. People were supported to maintain their independence where possible. People were involved in their care and were enabled to express their views.
People received person centred care which met their changing needs from staff who knew them well. There had not been any complaints in the service, but people knew how to complain and who to if they needed to. Where people consented, their wishes for their end of life were known and recorded.
The registered manager had developed a positive, person centred culture in the service which motivated staff to provide quality care for people. Staff felt supported by and respected the registered manager.
There were effective quality assurance systems in place to ensure risk, quality and safe care. There were good communications with the staff team and partnership working with other agencies to ensure people’s needs were met.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
This service was registered with us on 17/07/2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the length of time since the service registered with us.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.