Human Support Group Limited - York

Updated 17 November 2023

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

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

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be available to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 3 November 2023 and ended on 8 November 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 and professionals who work with the service. 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 this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the regional manager, the registered manager and gathered feedback from 5 staff. We spoke to 9 people using the service over the telephone. We looked at the care records for 3 people, including risk assessments and medicines records. We looked governance systems, policies and procedures and training records.

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as telephone calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.’ The inspection started on 3 November 2023 and ended on 8 November 2023.

Updated 17 November 2023

Human Support Group York is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care. At the time of our inspection there were 77 people were using a reablement service and 2 people received a domiciliary care service. Reablement is a short and intensive service, usually delivered in the home for up to six weeks. The purpose of reablement is to help people who have experienced deterioration in their health and/or have increased support needs to relearn the skills required to keep them safe and independent at home.

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 and their relatives spoke positively about the service they received. Safeguarding policies and procedures were in place and staff had a good understanding of them. Safe recruitment checks took place before staff started work. There were enough staff to meet people's needs appropriately. Risks to people were assessed and there were systems in place that ensured medicines were managed safely. Procedures were in place to reduce the risk of infections and staff had enough personal protective equipment.

Assessments of people's needs and wishes were completed and reviewed. People received support to maintain good health and to access services when required. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People knew how to make a complaint if they were unhappy with the service.

There were systems in place that provided oversight and good management of the service to monitor the quality of care that people received. The service worked in partnership with health and social care professionals. People's views were taken into account and the provider used feedback to help drive service improvements.

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 6 April 2018)

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding. 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 Human Support Group York 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.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.