Happy Care

Updated 19 January 2023

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 checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

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

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 a short period notice of the inspection so that we could be sure there would be someone available in the office to support our inspection.

Inspection activity started on 19 December 2022 and ended on 3 January 2023. We visited the location’s office on 19 December 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 registered manager, director, compliance lead and four care staff. We spoke with three people using the service and 13 relatives. We reviewed three care plans and risk assessments, four staff recruitment files and other documents relating to the running of the service such as the feedback folder and audit file.

Updated 19 January 2023

About the service

Happy Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people 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. At the time of our inspection there were 22 people receiving personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People experienced a service that was exceptional in its leadership. The registered manager and staff frequently went above and beyond the expectations of their role to ensure people were safe and well supported. This included providing care outside of scheduled visits on occasion when the person had no other means of support. There were regular lines of communication in place so that any issues or concerns were identified promptly, and action taken to improve. Staff felt valued and appreciated and the leadership of the service gave outstanding support to ensure they were in a position to carry out their roles effectively. This included providing transport to get to work.

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 using the service were safe. Since our last inspection, improvements had been made to the recruitment process. Staff were kind, caring and well trained so that people were able to build good relationships and feel safe. There were sufficient staff to ensure people’s needs were met. Support with medicines was given when required in line with people’s assessed needs.

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

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 10 August 2021).The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced, comprehensive inspection of this service on 10 June 2021. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve staff recruitment.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe and well led.

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 changed from requires improvement to 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 Happy Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.