Archived: Care Help Line (West Midlands) Ltd

Updated 8 February 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The service was last inspected in April 2015 when we found the provider was not meeting the essential standards described in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and improvement was required in all areas.

After the comprehensive inspection in April 2015, the provider sent us a plan of action to say what they would do to improve the service. At our comprehensive inspection in January 2017, we found the provider had followed their plan of action and improvements had been made.

The office visit took place on 17 January 2017 and was announced. We told the provider before the visit we would be coming so they could ensure they would be available to speak with us and arrange for us to speak with care staff. The inspection was conducted by an inspector, an inspection manager 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.

Prior to the office visit we reviewed the information we held about the service. We looked at the statutory notifications the service had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. We contacted the local authority commissioners to find out their views of the service provided. Commissioners are people who contract care and support services provided to people. They had no concerns about the service.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We found the information in the PIR was an accurate assessment of how the service operated.

The provider also sent a list of people who used the service; this was so we could send surveys to people and contact people by phone to ask them their views of the service. Surveys were sent to 35 people who used the service, 35 relatives and 45 staff.

We spoke with 20 people by phone, 18 people who used the service and two relatives. Surveys were returned from 14 people who used the service, one relative, and seven staff.

During our visit we spoke with three support workers, a care co-ordinator, the monitoring officer, the assistant trainee manager, the business/marketing manager and the registered manager who was also the provider of the service. We reviewed four people’s care records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We checked whether staff had been recruited safely and were trained to deliver the care and support people required. We looked at other records related to people’s care and how the service operated including the service’s quality assurance audits.

Updated 8 February 2017

Care Help Line (West Midlands) Ltd is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the agency supported approximately 100 people with personal care and employed 56 care staff.

Following our last comprehensive inspection of the service in April 2015 we found the provider was not providing the standard of service we would expect and the service was rated ‘Requires Improvement’ in all areas. During our comprehensive inspection in January 2017 we found the required improvements had been made.

We visited the offices of Care Help Line on 17 January 2017. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange to be there and for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was also the provider of the service.

People felt safe with care staff that provided their care and staff understood their responsibility to protect people from abuse. There were processes to minimise risks to people’s safety, these included procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care and for managing people’s medicines safely. Care staff were properly checked during recruitment to make sure they were suitable to work with people who used the service.

People told us they were supported by care staff who they knew and who had the right skills to provide the care and support they required. Care staff understood people’s needs and abilities as they visited the same people regularly and had time to get to know people and read their care plans.

People felt involved in their care and care plans provided guidance for staff about how people liked their care delivered. Plans were regularly reviewed to make sure people continued to have the support they needed.

There were enough care staff to deliver the care and support people required. Care staff received the training and support they needed to meet people’s needs effectively. People told us care staff were kind and respected their privacy, dignity and independence.

The registered manager understood their responsibility to comply with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). People made their own decisions about their care and had given agreement for the care to be provided. Care staff respected people’s decisions and gained people’s consent before they provided personal care.

People knew how to complain and information about making a complaint was available for people. No complaints had been made about the service in 2016. People and care staff said they could raise any concerns or issues with the management team, knowing they would be listened to and acted on.

The management team checked people received the care they needed by monitoring the time care workers arrived at people’s homes, reviewing people’s care records and through feedback from people and staff.

The provider’s quality monitoring system included asking people for their views about the quality of the service through telephone conversations, visits to review their care and annual questionnaires. There was a programme of other checks and audits which the provider used to monitor and improve the service.