Helping Hands Cirencester

Updated 18 January 2023

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

The inspection was carried out by 1 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.

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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. 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.

Inspection activity started on 15 December 2022 and ended on 21 December 2022. We visited the location’s office on 20 December 2022.

What we did before the inspection

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 information gathered as part of a monitoring activity that took place on 27 May 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the area care manager and the care coordinator for the service. We spoke to 6 staff members including carers and a care trainer practitioner. We spoke to 2 people that use the service and 4 relatives to gather feedback.

We reviewed a range of care records, risk assessments and medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to staff recruitment. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, staff development and the provider's policies and procedures.

Updated 18 January 2023

About the service

Helping Hands Cirencester is a domiciliary care service providing the regulated activity of personal care to people living in the community. The service provides support to older people and young adults. At the time of our inspection there were 22 people using the service.

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.

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

People’s needs and risks were assessed before receiving care from the service and were updated regularly. This means that people’s changing needs were identified and supported in a timely way.

People’s care plans and risk assessments guided staff to provide safe and effective care. People felt safe whilst receiving personal care from the service and felt protected from any risk of abuse.

Where people were supported in the administration of their medicines, they were supported by staff who had been trained and competency assessed.

Accidents, incidents and near misses were reported and responded to appropriately and in a timely manner.

Staff followed good infection control practices and had access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

People were supported to have maximum choice and control over their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible.

Staff were recruited safely and had a suitable induction with ongoing training.

People and their relatives were positive about the caring nature of the service and the staff. They reported that they were treated with dignity, respect and kindness.

People, relatives and staff felt that their concerns were listened to and acted upon. Any learning from good practice of areas for improvement were shared across the organisation.

The registered manager and management team promoted a positive learning culture and ensured that good practice was shared and acted on throughout the service. The service had a number of systems in place to quality monitor staff practices and the service.

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.

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 11 October 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.