Right at Home Mitcham, Streatham and Dulwich

Updated 14 December 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

This inspection was carried out by an inspector and 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 homes.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider would be available to support the inspection when we visited.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we held about the service including the last inspection report and notifications. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law. 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 all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 1 person who used the service and 10 family members. We also spoke with the managing director, finance and operations director, registered manager and 3 staff members who provided care to people.

We reviewed a range of records. This included people's care plans and risk assessments, medicines management procedures and staff files in relation to training and recruitment data. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and policies were also reviewed.

Updated 14 December 2023

About the service

Right at Home Mitcham, Streatham and Dulwich is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, out of a total number of 40 people, 18 people were receiving support with personal care.

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 felt safe because staff understood their care and support needs well. There were safe staff recruitment procedures in place aimed at compassionate staff being employed by the provider. People received support to manage their medicines as prescribed. Policies and procedures were in place to effectively manage risks associated with infection control. People's risk assessments were individualised and guided staff on how to mitigate the potential risks to people. However, fire safety procedures required reviewing making sure people were safe living in their own homes.

There was a good leadership at the service with shared responsibilities to monitor the care being delivered to people. Staff were caring and attended to people's support with kindness. People and their relative's told us they had good communication with the management team and that their wishes and choices were adhered to. Healthcare professionals were involved as and when necessary to support people's well-being.

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 this service was good (published 30 May 2018).

You can read the report from our last inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Right at Home Mitcham, Streatham and Dulwich on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we inspected

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

This was a focused inspection and the report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

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.