This report was created as part of a pilot which looked at new and innovative ways of fulfilling CQC’s regulatory obligations and responding to risk in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was conducted with the consent of the provider. Unless the report says otherwise, we obtained the information in it without visiting the Provider. About the service
Avant Healthcare Services ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes within the London Borough of Hounslow. The service can care for older and younger adults, children under the age of 18 years, people with disabilities and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection 63 people were 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 using the service and their relatives were happy with the care they received. They told us they had good relationships with individual care workers. They were involved in making decisions about, planning and reviewing their care and they told us the agency met their needs.
People were safely cared for. There were appropriate systems to manage medicines in a safe way. The risks to people's safety and wellbeing had been assessed, planned for and were monitored.
There were enough suitable staff employed to care for people. The care workers arrived on time and people were usually supported by the same familiar care workers. There were effective systems to monitor whether calls took place on time and as planned.
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's care needs were assessed and planned for. Care plans were clear and appropriately detailed. They included information about people's preferences and interests. The agency regularly reviewed these, with people using the service, to help make sure they were relevant and continued to reflect people's needs.
There were effective systems for managing the service and monitoring quality. These included regular reviews of people's care, meetings with staff and engaging with people using the service and other stakeholders to hear their views.
The provider responded to complaints, accidents, incidents and safeguarding alerts in an appropriate way, learning from these and making sure people were protected from harm.
The provider promoted positive social values, working closely with others and within the local community.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The rating at the last inspection 17 April 2018 (Published 18 May 2018) was good.
Why we inspected
This was a planned pilot virtual inspection. The report was created as part of a pilot which looked at new and innovative ways of fulfilling CQC’s regulatory obligations and responding to risk in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was conducted with the consent of the provider. Unless the report says otherwise, we obtained the information in it without visiting the Provider.
The pilot inspection considered the key questions of safe and well-led and provide a rating for those key questions. Only parts of the effective, caring and responsive key questions were considered, and therefore the ratings for these key questions are those awarded at the last inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Avant Healthcare Services ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.