Dependable Home Care Services Limited

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.

People’s experience of using this service: People spoke highly of the care staff who visited them from Dependable Home Care Services. People’s privacy, dignity and independence was promoted. Positive relationships had developed between people receiving support and care staff.

The registered provider had a complaints policy in place. Information about the complaints process was provided to people from the initial contact We identified that although complaints had been actioned, feedback was not always recognised as a complaint. We discussed this with the manager and they told us they would address this without delay.

There wasn't a centralised log of communication from professionals and others for people receiving a service. This was immediately remedied following the inspection.

The provider had safeguarding and accident reporting processes in place that the staff were fully aware of and followed.

The service was a small, family run business which had worked with other social care professionals to improve and provide quality care. The provider told us that they never accepted a care package unless they were confident that they could meet the person’s needs to a high standard.

Care plans and risk assessments were clearly recorded. They detailed how people wished and needed to be cared for. They were regularly reviewed and updated as required with input from the people using the service. We saw that people and their relatives were involved in supporting staff to understand how people wished to be cared for.

People told us that for the most part, their support was provided by the same staff which meant they were supported by staff they were familiar with and comfortable with. This was good practice. People told us staff turned up on time and that they received the support they needed.

Recruitment processes were in place and pre-employment checks were carried out. Staff employed by the service received an induction into their job role and were appropriately, trained and supported to meet people’s needs safely.

Medicines were administered safely and in accordance with the service’s policy.

The service worked closely with other health and social care professionals and feedback we received said that the provider was flexible in the support that they provided.

The registered provider was complying with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and we saw that people had consented to their care.

Quality assurance processes were in place and the provider had up to date policies in place to guide staff practice.

People also had the opportunity to share their thoughts, opinions and suggestions about the support they received and we saw that the manager and staff used this feedback to learn from and improve the service.

Rating at last inspection: This was the first inspection of the service since it registered with CQC.

Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection as part of CQC’s inspection schedule.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.