Right at Home Mitcham, Streatham and Dulwich

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.

Right at Home is part of a franchise that delivers care to people in many areas of the United Kingdom. They provide domiciliary care and support to mainly older people living in their own homes in the Mitcham, Streatham and Dulwich area of London. This service includes assistance with all personal care, meal preparation, eating, medicines administration and general domestic chores. We only looked at the service for people receiving personal care during this inspection as this is the service that is regulated by CQC. The staff who support people are known as ‘caregivers,’ we have called them this in the report and office personnel are referred to as staff.

The service did not have a registered manager at the time of the inspection. The former registered manager had left at the end of January 2018 and the provider had recruited a new manager who was due to start at the end of April 2018. In the meantime the provider was managing the service.

A manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.

The provider had only been delivering services to people for the past year, but during that time had established good practices and procedures which would help as the service expanded.

People were safe in their homes. Caregivers and staff could explain to us how to keep people safe from abuse and neglect. People had suitable risk assessments in place. The provider managed risks associated with people’s homes, to help keep people and caregivers safe. Recruitment practices were safe.

Staff were trained in medicine administration and the checks we made confirmed that people were receiving their medicines as prescribed by caregivers qualified to administer medicines

People were supported by caregivers who received appropriate training and support. Staff had the skills, experience and a good understanding of how to meet people’s needs.

Staff were providing support in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. When required people were supported to eat and drink sufficient amounts to meet their needs. Staff worked well with people’s GP and other healthcare professional to ensure they stayed well and comfortable.

People and relatives told us staff were caring, kind and efficient and staff respected their privacy and treated them with dignity.

People’s needs were assessed before they started to use the service and care was planned and delivered in response to their needs. The provider had arrangements in place to respond appropriately to people’s concerns and complaints.

The provider had recognised and responded to people’s social needs by starting a dementia café ‘The Waterlily’ to support people with dementia and their family and caregivers. The manager also delivered regular information sessions to the local community on how to be more dementia friendly and supportive of those people living with dementia.

Systems were in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service. The provider had effective quality assurance systems to monitor the scheme’s processes. These systems helped ensure people received the care they needed as detailed in their support plans.