Helping Hands Warrington

Updated 29 June 2022

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 looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an ‘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

Helping Hands Warrington is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 no registered manager in post. An interim manager had been appointed; they had submitted all the relevant registration documentation to CQC.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection; we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 24 May 2022 and ended on 26 May 2022. We visited the office location on 24 May 2022.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We also sought feedback from the local authority 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 of this information to plan our inspection.

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 8 March 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

During the inspection

We spoke with the four people who were receiving support, seven relatives about their experiences of care their loved ones received, the manager, another Helping Hands branch manager, and three members of staff.

We reviewed three people’s care records, multiple medication administration records, three staff personnel files in relation to recruitment and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 29 June 2022

About the service

Helping Hands Warrington is a domiciliary care agency that provides support and personal care to younger and older adults in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 29 people received support from the service. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission 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

Assessment of risk, safety monitoring and management measures were in place. Care records contained relevant, up to date and consistent information in relation to people’s support needs and staff were familiar with the tailored level of care people needed. One person told us, “I’m very safe, because they [staff] always seem very confident in what they are doing. They are attentive.”

Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuse were in place. Staff knew how to escalate their concerns, people and relatives told us that safe care was provided, and people were protected. One person told us, “Yes, they [staff] do know me well and understand my needs.”

Safe medicine management processes were in place. Care records contained up to date medication risk assessment information, people received medication support in accordance with their administration instructions and staff received the required medication training.

People were protected from the risk of infection; safe and effective infection prevention and control (IPC) procedures were in place. Staff were engaged in routine COVID-19 testing, PPE was in ample supply and there was an up to date IPC policy in place.

Staffing levels were effectively managed and safe recruitment procedures were in place. We received feedback to suggest that staffing levels had recently improved, people received care from a consistent staff team and call times generally took place at the times that had been agreed as part of the persons care package.

Effective quality assurance and governance measures had been maintained. We were assured that quality performance and risk management measures were used to assess the quality and safety of care people received.

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 31 May 2019).

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services which have had a recent Direct Monitoring Approach (DMA) assessment where no further action was needed to seek assurance about this decision and to identify learning about the DMA process.

The focused inspection reviewed the key questions of safe, and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service remains ‘good’. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Helping Hands Warrington 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.