Home First - Cannock

Updated 8 August 2019

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. Home First – Cannock provides a short term reablement service. People usually have up to six weeks support following a hospital stay or other event, with the aim of supporting them to regain their independence.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we wanted to speak with people before we visited the office.

Inspection activity started on 11 June 2019 and ended on 19 June 2019. We visited the office location on 12 June 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information we held about the service, including notifications, to plan our inspection. A notification is information about events that by law the registered persons should tell us about. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

We asked Healthwatch for any information they had about the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We also asked the local authority for any feedback. Neither organisation had any information of concern to share.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of care staff as well as the registered manager and coordinators.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We also viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service including audits, questionnaires, meeting minutes and action plans.

Updated 8 August 2019

About the service

Home First - Cannock is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to 35 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The number of people being supported varied from day to day due to people being discharged from hospital or people no longer needing the support.

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 and what we found

People were kept safe as staff understood their safeguarding responsibilities and plans were in place to mitigate risks to people. We have made a recommendation about staff knowing to report their concerns to the local safeguarding authority. People were supported to have their prescribed medicines. We have made a recommendation about ‘as and when required’ medicines. Lessons were learned when things had gone wrong and action was taken to protect people. There enough safely-recruited staff to support people safely, with recruitment ongoing. People were protected from the risk of cross infection as staff used appropriate protective clothing.

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 had access to a range of other health professionals and were supported to have food and drinks that were appropriate for their needs. Staff received training to be effective in their role.

People felt staff were kind and felt they were treated with respect. People were supported to maintain their dignity and be involved in decisions about their care. People retained and regained, where possible, their independence.

People had personalised plans of care and calls were flexible to allow people’s changing needs. People felt able to complain but had not felt the need to. Consideration had been given to people’s end of life preferences, but no one was being supported at the end of their life at the time of the inspection.

Systems were in place and effective at identifying areas to improve the quality of people’s care. Staff felt positively about the registered manager and felt supported in their role. The registered manager and staff were confident in their roles and understood their responsibilities. The service engaged with people and staff to ensure feedback was gathered to improve the service. The service also worked in partnership to ensure effective outcomes for people. Continuous learning was being applied following incidents, spot checks and new guidance being released.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 11/06/2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

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.