Radfield Home Care Chester & Ellesmere Port

Radfield Home Care Chester and Ellesmere Port is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. Radfield Home Care offers a variety of services, including assistance with personal care, meal preparation, companionship, medicines management and domestic tasks. At the time of our inspection there were 23 people using the service.

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

We found many examples where staff had gone 'above and beyond' their role to support people through truly exceptional circumstances. Staff had supported people to have positive outcomes following extremely difficult events in their lives. Staff had also supported a person to stay at home in accordance with their wishes at the end of their life. Staff offered flexibility to the hours of support required and also offered consistency.

People told us they were treated exceptionally well, and staff consistently ensured their privacy and dignity was respected. People described being offered choice in all areas of their support and told us staff promoted their independence wherever possible. They said they never felt rushed, and staff had ample time to complete all tasks as well as taking time for conversation which people valued.

People and their relatives were fully involved in the development of their care plans. Plans were person centred and there were risk assessments in place that held enough detail to ensure their needs and preferences were met. Care plans were reviewed regularly with the full involvement of the person supported and their relatives and were promptly updated when needs changed. People told us they had regular staff supporting them who were kind, caring and considerate.

Staffing levels were enough to meet people’s needs and staff were safely recruited. All staff had completed an induction and carried out shadow shifts prior to lone working. Staff told us they received training and felt confident in their roles. Staff felt exceptionally well supported by the management team and gave lovely examples of being supplied with fleece jackets in the winter and also cold drinks and ice creams in the summer.

People were protected from the risk of abuse. Safeguarding policies and procedures were in place. Staff had received training and understood how to keep people safe and who to report to if they had any concerns.

Staff supported people to take their medicines safely. Staff were trained and had their competency regularly assessed in medicines management. People told us they received their prescribed medicines on time.

The provider had quality assurance systems in place. These included audits, analysis and spot checks that were used to drive improvements. There was a complaints policy and procedure in place that people and their relatives were aware of. People told us they felt confident to raise any concerns and complaints they had. We received many compliments about the service, staff and management team.

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.

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 19 August 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.