Archived: Care at Home Group St Helens

Care at Home Group St Helens provides care and support to people in their own homes across the St Helens, Knowsley and Widnes areas. 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 the inspection there were 65 people using the service.

People's experience of using the service and what we found

Staff told us they felt additional pressures due to not always being given enough time to travel between people’s calls. This often resulted in them attending calls later than agreed. They also told us staff absence resulted in their rotas being changed at the last minute and being given calls out of their usual areas. People and family members told us, on-the-whole, staff arrived on time and stayed the agreed amount of time.

We have made a recommendation regarding this.

Risks to people, including those related to COVID-19, and the environment had been assessed and in most cases management plans were in place for staff to follow. However, staff told us they did not always have access to relevant information where new packages of care had commenced.

Staff received training and guidance in relation to infection prevention and control and followed current national guidance when using personal protective equipment. However, we could not always be assured that robust measures were in place to prevent the wider spread of infection in the event that a person tested positive for COVID-19.

People’s needs had been assessed and, in most cases, plans were in place for staff to follow and provide effective care. However, staff told us in some cases information about people’s care and support needs was not available and electronic devices lacked relevant information.

We have made a recommendation regarding this.

Systems were in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service. However, they had not identified the issues we found relating to travel time and lack of information regarding people's care and support needs, including risk management.

Records indicated staff received training relevant to their role. Staff provided mixed feedback regarding the quality of the training and induction process and how confident they felt carrying out their role. The provider was in the process of reviewing their training and induction programmes.

Positive feedback was received from people about the care they received. Staff treated people with respect and made them feel at ease. People told us they mostly received care from consistent staff who knew them well.

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.

The manager acknowledged and celebrated the hard work, dedication and personal achievements of staff and organised various events throughout the year to encourage engagement from people using the service.

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

Rating at the last inspection

This service was registered with us on 7 April 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

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.