Archived: Right at Home Tyneside

Updated 14 August 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Following the last inspection, we asked the provider to complete an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve the key questions, safe, effective, responsive and well-led to at least good. At this inspection we found that significant improvements had been made in all of these areas.

The inspection site visit took place on 24 July 2018. The inspection was announced. We gave the provider short notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure the office would be open to access records. One inspector visited the office location to see the management team and to review care records, policies and procedures.

At the site visit, we spoke with the business owner (known as the provider), the registered manager, the deputy manager and a quality and compliance regional manager. As the care staff worked remotely, we emailed them to obtain their opinions. We received five responses. We reviewed a range of care records and the records kept regarding the management of the service. This included looking at four people’s care records, four staff files, the rostering system and records related to the quality monitoring of the service.

On 27 July 2018, an assistant inspector conducted telephone interviews with four people who were receiving care in their own homes and one relative to gather their views about the service.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed all the information we held about Right at Home Tyneside, including any statutory notifications that the provider had sent us and any safeguarding information we had received. Notifications are made to us by providers in line with their obligations under the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. These are records of incidents that have occurred within the service or other matters that the provider is legally obliged to inform us of.

In addition, we contacted Newcastle and North Tyneside local authority commissioning teams and adult safeguarding teams to obtain their feedback about the service. All of this information helped to inform our planning of the inspection.

Updated 14 August 2018

This inspection took place on 24 and 27 July 2018 and was announced. This service is a domiciliary care agency based in Newcastle. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes throughout Newcastle and North Tyneside. Services were provided to adults with a wide range of health and social care needs. At the time of our inspection there were 35 people receiving a service.

Not everyone using Right at Home Tyneside receives regulated activity; The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

The provider had employed a whole new management team to support them since the last inspection, including a registered manager and a deputy manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager had been registered since December 2017.

At the last inspection in August 2017, we asked the provider to take action and make improvements to risk assessments, medicine management, staffing and the governance of the service. We found these actions had been completed at this inspection.

Staff fully supported people to maintain their health and safety within their own home. Risk assessments were comprehensively completed to manage any risks faced by individuals. We saw risk assessments and support plans were now regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the current situation following any changes in people’s needs.

The management of medicines had much improved. People told us medicines were received safely and on time. New systems were in place to ensure that medicine administration records were accurate and up to date. This included regular auditing of medicines and the associated documentation. Competency checks were carried out with care workers to ensure they remained able to do this task.

Staff recruitment was safe and robust. Vigorous pre-employment checks were now in place to ensure new staff were suitable to work with people who required social care. New staff had received a robust induction. Staff training was up to date. Records showed and staff confirmed that they now received regular supervision sessions, an annual appraisal and that staff meetings took place. Staff told us they felt very valued by the new management team. There was a much-improved positive culture in which staff were confident to discuss anything with the management team and they felt certain it would be acted upon.

There were enough staff employed to look after people safely. Care workers told us that they did not feel rushed with tasks. People told us that on the whole, they had regular care workers who arrived as they expected. Staff were reliable and rotas were consistent.

Monitoring of the service was now thorough and robust. We saw an internal review had been carried out and an external consultant had been sought to provide guidance on improving the service and achieving compliance with regulations. New audits had been implemented and sustained. These audits identified any issues and tracked actions through to completion. This demonstrated that checks on the service were now routinely undertaken and where issues were identified, the management team acted. Regular unannounced spot checks on service delivery were conducted to ensure that high standards were achieved.

People told us they felt safe and were happy with the care staff who visited them on a regular basis. Policies and procedures were in place to help staff protect people from harm and the staff we liaised with understood their responsibilities to protect people. Incidents of a safeguarding nature had been appropriately recorded, investigated, reported and reviewed. The two local authorities who commissioned services to Right at Home Tyneside told us that they had no current concerns about the service.

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.

Staff encouraged people to maintain a healthy and balanced diet. People told us their care workers made meals and drinks of their choice. External health and social care professionals were involved with people’s care to ensure their ongoing well-being.

People told us their care workers were nice and friendly and that they respected their home. People felt their dignity and privacy was upheld by care staff. All staff we spoke with displayed a kind and compassionate attitude.

There was a complaints policy in place; a system was in place to record all complaints and to ensure matters were escalated to the registered manager or provider as necessary. We saw all complaints and minor issues had been logged, investigated and resolved in a timely manner. People we spoke with had no complaints about the service.

Telephone courtesy calls were carried out to check customer satisfaction and an externally commissioned survey was issued annually. The results showed that people who received care at home were very happy with the service. The provider planned to complete a ‘you said, we did’ action plan to feedback the results and actions taken to people.