About the service: Hands of Hope Health Care is a small domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. At the present time it provides a service for ten people. Not everyone using the service receives 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 were protected from the risk of abuse. The service had safeguarding procedures in place that staff were well aware of. Staff received training on safeguarding people.
There were robust recruitment practices in place and sufficient staff levels to meet people’s needs.
The provider had an appropriate medicines policy and procedure and all staff received appropriate training. This meant people received their medicines safely and staff had clear guidance to follow, informed by models of best practice.
Comprehensive risk assessments and risk management strategies were in place as part of the assessment and support planning process. This meant risks to people and to staff were minimised.
Accidents, incidents and risks were appropriately recorded and included details of preventive strategies used by the service to reduce the likelihood of events occurring in the future.
People's nutritional needs were met and where people required support with nutrition, care plans provided staff with guidance on people's support needs.
Services were delivered in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and staff sought consent prior to providing care and offered people choices to encourage people to make their own decisions.
People were supported to have healthier lives. Staff assisted them to access health professionals when needed to ensure their health and well-being was monitored.
Staff were well trained and received appropriate support from the registered manager.
People told us they enjoyed caring relationships with the staff.
People were treated as individuals by staff committed to respecting people's individual preferences. Care plans were person centred and people were actively involved in developing their support plans.
The registered manager had systems in place to ensure concerns and complaints were responded to in an appropriate way.
The culture of the service was positive, open and person centred.
The service was well led by the registered manager who was keen to employ innovative ways of working to develop the service. There were effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service provided to people which ensured good governance.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update:
At the last inspection this key question was not rated due to insufficient evidence to support a rating (published 19 June 2019).
Why we inspected:
This was a planned inspection in line with our inspection schedule. We found the service met the characteristics of a "Good" rating in all areas.
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.