Harmonize Care

Updated 19 April 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.

Before our inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We also reviewed information we had received about the service such as notifications. This is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also looked at information sent to us from other stakeholders, for example the local authority and members of the public.

During our inspection, we visited the offices of Harmonize care. We looked at the care records of five people, training and recruitment records of staff members, and records relating to the management of the service. These included medicine records, staff training, recruitment and supervision records, accidents, incidents, complaints, quality audits and policies and procedures.

We visited three people in their own home accompanied by a senior member of staff. We also spoke with four family members. We spoke with the registered manager as well as three members of care staff.

Updated 19 April 2018

Harmonize Care provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. In addition to providing personal care, they also provide a service which helps people with activities and domestic duties. This element of the service, does not need to be registered with the Commission.

We focussed our inspection on the people in receipt of personal care only. On the day of our inspection there were 16 people using the service, eight of which received personal care.

The provider was given 48 hours' notice of our inspection because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to know that someone would be available.

There was a registered manager in post. The registered manager was also the provider. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.

This was the first time the service has been inspected since the provider was registered to provide personal care in December 2016.

The service provided a positive, open and inclusive culture. People valued the relationships they had with staff and were positive about the care they received. Staff demonstrated empathy, understanding and warmth in their interactions with people.

Risk assessments were in place but those relating to people’s specific health conditions lacked detail. People’s medicines records also lacked detail and were not monitored. However, work had begun on making improvements in both these areas.

People told us they felt safe. Procedures were in place to safeguard people from the potential risk of abuse. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and recruitment checks were completed to make sure people were safe.

People received support that was personalised to them and met their individual needs and wishes. Staff respected people's privacy and dignity and interacted with people in a caring, compassionate and professional manner.

Staff supported people to have choice and control over their lives in the least restrictive way possible. People were supported when making decisions about their preferences for end of life care.

People were asked for their views about the service and their comments were listened to and acted upon.

People were positive about the quality of the service. The registered manager was in the process of improving on their auditing systems to enable them to evidence how they monitored the service provision. There was a strong emphasis on continually striving to improve.

The registered manager and the staff team were committed to providing people with good quality person centred care that met their needs and preferences.