Archived: Helping Hands Guildford

Helping Hands Guildford is a homecare agency providing care to people in their own homes. The service is registered to provide care to older people, people living with sensory impairments, mental health needs, dementia, physical disabilities and learning disabilities and/or autistic people. 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. There were 24 people receiving personal care at the time of the inspection.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

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

Right Support:

Staff supported people to live as independently as possible and be in control of their daily lives. People were provided with a choice in all their decision-making and families were involved where they wanted to be. People’s risks in relation to their care were managed and staff understood how to maintain people’s independence. There were sufficient staff to cover visits and people told us that they were generally on time with no missed visits. Where staff had arrived late for their calls, the registered manager tracked this and people were informed. We were assured that the service were following good infection prevention and control procedures to keep people safe.

Right Care:

People and their relatives told us they felt supported by staff in a kind, caring and dignified way. People’s differences were respected by staff and they had undertaken relevant training to effectively support people. People told us that the care was generally consistent and that staff knew them well. People’s right to privacy was respected and staff encouraged people to provide feedback about the care provided. Care plans were personalised and included information on people’s healthcare needs, preferences and hobbies. Care plans included information on the support staff provided in relation to oral care.

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.

Right Culture:

The culture of the service was open, inclusive and empowered people to live independent lives. People and their relatives were complimentary about the service, and felt their ideas and concerns would be listened to by the management team. People told us they felt that staff had helped them become more confident and independent where this was possible. Management had undertaken audits to look at ways of improving the service and identifying issues. Staff were generally complimentary about the registered manager and told us they were able to raise concerns.

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 18 May 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

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