Severn Valley Home Care Offices

Updated 21 July 2022

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

This 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 homes.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. A registered manager was in post and they were also the provider. This means they, as the provider and registered manager, were legally responsible for how the service was run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is a domiciliary care provider and the provider is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure they would be in.

What we did before the 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 asked the local authority and Healthwatch for any information they had which would aid our inspection. Local authorities together with other agencies may have responsibility for funding people who used the service and monitoring it’s quality. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided. Additionally, we spoke with five staff members including two carers, two administrators and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care plans and records of medicines administration. We looked at a variety of documents relating to the management of the service, including quality monitoring checks. We confirmed the safe recruitment of four staff members.

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Updated 21 July 2022

About the service

Severn Valley Home Care Office is a Domiciliary Care Agency (DCA) registered to provide personal care. People were supported with their personal care needs to enable them to live in their own homes and promote their independence. At the time of the inspection the service supported 19 people with personal care.

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 protected from the risks of ill-treatment and abuse as staff had been trained to recognise potential signs of abuse and understood what to do if they suspected harm or abuse.

The provider had assessed the risks associated with people’s care and support. Staff members were knowledgeable about these risks and knew what to do to minimise the potential for harm.

When required, people received safe support with their medicines from staff members who had been trained and assessed as competent. Staff members followed effective infection prevention and control procedures when supporting people.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and the provider supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the application of the policies and systems supported good practice.

The provider supported staff in providing effective care to people through person-centred care planning, training and one-to-one supervision. People were supported to refer themselves to additional healthcare services, and staff supported them if required.

People received help and support from a kind and compassionate staff team with whom they had developed positive relationships. People were supported by staff members who were aware of their individual protected characteristics like age, religion, gender and disability.

People were provided with information in a way they could understand. The provider had systems in place to encourage and respond to any compliments or complaints from people or those close to them. The provider, and management team, had good links with the local communities within which people lived.

The provider had effective systems in place to identify improvements and drive good care.

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 22 January 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.