Golden Home Care Domiciliary Limited

Updated 9 July 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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. 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

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small and people are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people at the office to speak with us. Inspection activity started on 4 June 2019 and ended on 13 June 2019. We visited the office location on 4 June 2019.

What we did before the inspection

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. This included the previous inspection report, notifications since the last inspection and feedback from the local authority. Notifications are changes, events and incidents that the service must inform us about. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection-

We spoke to six staff members including the registered manager and provider. We looked at four care plans and eight staff files. We checked the complaints log, accident/incident records and surveys completed by people who used the service. We also checked quality monitoring audits and records of spot checks on staff.

After the inspection –

We followed up on information and evidence around audits, employment references and contact details for staff, relatives and people. We conducted telephone interviews with four people and five relatives.

Updated 9 July 2019

About the service

My Home Care Agency is a domiciliary care agency that was providing personal care to 17 people aged 65 or over at the time of the inspection.

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

People who received care from My Home Care told us they felt safe and supported by staff who visited them. Staff were punctual and consistent at carrying out visits with people in a person-centred manner. One person told us, “The staff are very nice and helpful.”

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.

The service was not always well managed as records of audits had not been completed. Staff, people and relatives all told us they thought the service was well run and managed.

Care plans were created with people and relatives to ensure they were person centred and tailored to peoples’ needs and routines. Staff were trained and supported to be effective carers in a collaborative team. Where needed, staff were quick to support people to have access to health care professionals such as occupational therapists or, when necessary, emergency services.

People's needs were assessed before they used the service to ensure the agency could provide the care they needed. People said their care workers always stayed for the allocated length of their visits.

Staff attended safeguarding training and understood their responsibilities in terms of recognising and reporting abuse. People were protected as robust recruitment procedures were in place.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published December 2016).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.