Dependable Home Care Services Limited

Updated 6 October 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 4 inspectors. Two inspectors carried out the onsite inspection and 2 inspectors completed telephone calls to staff following our onsite inspection.

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 unannounced.

Inspection activity started on 22 August 2023 and ended on 25 September 2023. We visited the location’s office on 23 August 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. We also requested feedback from Healthwatch to obtain their views of the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. 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 took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 1 person who used the service and 1 family member about their experience of the care provided. Additionally, we received feedback from a further person who used the service and 3 relatives via email. We spoke with 7 members of staff including senior care staff, 6 care staff, and the provider, who is also the registered manager.

We looked at a range of records. This included 7 people's care and medicine records. We looked at a 4 staff files in relation to recruitment and a variety of records relating to the management of the service. After the inspection visit, we requested further records in relation to the management of the service.

Updated 6 October 2023

About the service

Dependable Home Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal care to younger and older adults living in their own homes.

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

Staff were recruited safely, and pre-employment checks had been carried out. Staff confirmed this and told us they were well looked after and felt supported. Staffing arrangements met people’s needs. There were systems in place to keep people safe from abuse. Staff received safeguarding training and knew how to recognise and report any form of abuse. Risks associated with people’s individual care needs, including the environment were assessed. Staff were knowledgeable about people and their individual known risks and understood how to support people safely. People were supported with their medicines by trained staff where required. Staff were trained in infection prevention and control and had access to supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). Relatives confirmed appropriate PPE was worn by staff when provided with care and support. Any accidents and incidents were recorded, acted upon and action taken to learn and reduce them from happening again.

The registered manager had effective systems and processes in place that assessed, monitored and reviewed the quality and safety of the service to ensure people were provided with good, safe care. The registered manager also delivered care to people when required and managed the service effectively having good oversight and leadership. The service worked with other health and social care professionals to support people.

People who used the service, relatives and staff were provided with opportunities to share their experience of the service. The registered manager welcomed feedback and showed a commitment in providing high quality care and support, which was personalised and supported people to live independently in their own homes. People and relatives spoke highly about the care and support they received. This included how friendly and caring staff were, communication and responsiveness of the registered manager. One relative said, “[Registered manager’s name] and staff have been the most reliable carers we as a family could have wished for. Always on time and staff provide the best possible care we could wish for. Above and beyond is the best way to describe it.”

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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 13 April 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing. As a result, 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.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dependable Home Care Services on our website 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.