Helping Hand

Helping Hand is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to older people, younger adults, people with a physical disability, sensory impairment, learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder, mental health support needs and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 19 people using the service.

People’s experience of the service and what we found:

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.

Right Support

People were provided with high quality care which achieved good outcomes for them. Staff followed safe infection prevention and control practices and supported people to manage their medicines safely. People were supported to stay safe in their home environment and staff helped them manage their health needs, including referring to community agencies when people needed additional support.

Right Care

People were supported in a way which reflected their individual needs. Staff knew people’s needs, risks and preferences well. People were supported by staff who had been recruited safely. Staff had completed training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew the action to take to keep people safe.

Right Culture

The culture at the service promoted high, quality person-centred care. People and relatives were involved in the development of the service and were regularly asked for their feedback about the care provided. The provider ensured staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities, through regular training, observations and supervision. Staff told us they felt well supported and could raise concerns or make suggestions. The provider monitored the care provided, to ensure appropriate standards of quality and safety were maintained.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service was Good (published 3 January 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Helping Hand at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow Up

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

The service was owned and operated by an individual who was the registered provider. There was a registered manager in post. 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. In this report when we speak about both the registered provider and the registered manager we refer to them as being, 'the registered persons'.

We last completed an inspection of the service delivered by the registered provider on 27 September 2016. At that inspection we said that the overall quality rating for the service was, ‘Good’. Shortly after our inspection the registered provider opened a new and larger office from which to deliver the service and this change meant that the service was newly registered for the purposes of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. Although to all intents and purposes the service delivered by the registered provider is the same as before, we have completed the present inspection because of the new registration.

At the present inspection we found that there were systems, processes and practices to safeguard people from situations in which they may experience abuse including financial mistreatment. Risks to people’s safety had been assessed, monitored and managed so they were supported to stay safe while their freedom was respected. In addition, medicines were managed safely and sufficient numbers of suitable care staff had been deployed to complete care calls in the right way. Background checks had been completed before new care staff had been appointed. People were protected by there being arrangements to prevent and control infection and lessons had been learnt when things had gone wrong.

Care staff had been supported to deliver care in line with current best practice guidance. People received the assistance they needed to eat and drink enough to maintain a balanced diet. In addition, suitable steps had been taken to ensure that people received coordinated and person-centred care when they used or moved between different services. People had been supported to live healthier lives by being supported to have suitable access to healthcare services so that they received on-going healthcare support.

Suitable arrangements had been made to obtain consent to care and treatment in line with legislation and guidance.

People were treated with kindness, respect and compassion and they were given emotional support when needed. They had also been supported to express their views and be actively involved in making decisions about their care as far as possible. This included there being provision to introduce them to lay advocates if necessary. Confidential information was kept private.

People received personalised care that was responsive to their needs. Care staff recognised the importance of promoting equality and diversity by supporting people to make choices about their lives. People’s concerns and complaints were listened and responded to in order to improve the quality of care. In addition, suitable provision had been made to support people at the end of their life to have a comfortable, dignified and pain-free death.

There was a positive culture in the service that was open, inclusive and focused upon achieving good outcomes for people. People benefited from there being a robust management framework that helped care staff to understand their responsibilities so that risks and regulatory requirements were met. In addition, various steps had been taken to promote the financial viability of the service. The views of people who used the service, relatives and care staff had been gathered and acted on to shape any improvements that were made. Quality checks had been completed to ensure people benefited from the service being able to quickly put problems right and to innovate so that people could consistently receive safe care. Good team work was promoted and care staff were supported to speak out if they had any concerns about people not being treated in the right way. In addition, the registered persons were actively working in partnership with other agencies to support the development of joined-up care.