Rather Home Care 169-171 Queens Crescent

25 Cheriton Queens Crescent is a small domiciliary care agency that provides support to people in their own homes. It provides a service to predominantly older adults. At the time of our inspection there were six people using the service with a seventh person having been referred for assessment to use the agency.

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:

The care and support provided to people was person centred. People’s care plans and risk assessments were detailed and included information about their care and support needs and preferences. Care staff had the necessary guidance about the support each person required and how people preferred to be cared for. Individualised guidance for staff was also provided to assist care staff to reduce and manage any risks that people faced in receiving care.

Staff had received training about safeguarding and knew how to respond to, and report, any allegation or suspicion of harm or abuse.

The service’s recruitment procedures were designed to ensure that staff were suitable for the work they would be undertaking. New staff members were not permitted to work with people until the necessary verification of employment history, references and Disclosure and Barring service checks [DBS] had been undertaken and were satisfactory.

All care staff were new employees to the service and had received an induction to the service before starting work. The registered manager was developing an ongoing training programme for all staff now that their inductions had been completed and the service was operating.

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.

People and their family were involved in decisions about their care, which was evident in the care plans we viewed. People had been involved in agreeing their care plans and participated in initial reviews that had already been completed for some people who had been using the service since May 2019, other people were not yet due reviews as they had recently begun using the agency.

Information about people’s religious, cultural and communication needs was included in their care plans. Care staff had the cultural and linguistic knowledge necessary to respect and address people’s heritage and communication needs.

People were asked about their views of the care and support that they received and since starting in May 2019 the service had received four written feedback responses, each of which complimented the service.

Processes were in place to manage and respond to complaints and concerns. People were confident about raising any complaints they may have about the service if necessary.

The provider and registered manager worked together at the service on a daily basis and told us about how they engaged in ongoing communication about what was happening day by day.

Rating at last inspection:

This service was registered with us on 26/09/2018 and this was the first inspection.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned comprehensive inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to inspect as part of our re-inspection programme.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.