Heronsmere Home Care

Updated 6 February 2024

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

One inspector carried out this inspection.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on the 21 November 2023 and ended on the 29 November. We conducted a site visit on 28 November 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager, and we reviewed a range of records. This included 2 people's care records and 2 people's medicines records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were viewed. We spoke with 4 relatives, 3 health care professionals and 4 staff.

Updated 6 February 2024

About the service

Heronsmere Home Care Ltd a domiciliary care service providing personal care and support for people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service provided support for 15 people.

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

The registered manager did not always have effective quality assurance systems in place to monitor the service. The registered manager was aware of the need to improve record keeping and acknowledge this was because they spent a large amount of time in the field providing care and support.

The registered manager did not always have effective quality assurance systems in place to monitor the service. The registered manager was aware of the need to improve record keeping and acknowledge this was because they spent a large amount of time in the field providing care and support.

Medicines were managed safely. Overall risk assessments provided information to care for people however for 1 person there needed to be more robust information provided to staff to help mitigate risks when providing care. The registered manager took prompt action to address the concerns. There were effective procedures in place to manage infection control. Staff understood how to safeguard people from the risk of harm.

The registered manager did not always have effective quality assurance systems in place to monitor the service. The registered manager was aware of the need to improve record keeping and acknowledge this was because they spent a large amount of time in the field providing care and support.

There were enough staff deployed to provide care and support. The registered manager was not always recording staff supervisions. We made a recommendation to the registered manager to review their practice. People were overwhelmingly happy with the care they receive. There was a positive culture amongst the care staff, they told us they felt supported in their roles and thoroughly enjoyed working for the service.

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 10 January 2018.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Heronmere Home Care LTD on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendations

We recommend the registered manager record supervisions in line with their policy.

Follow up

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