7 January 2021
During a routine inspection
Link Care Barnet is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes and flats in the community. The service supports older people with a range of physical, sensory and learning disabilities as well as people living with dementia. At the time of this inspection there were 40 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
People and relatives of people using the service spoke positively of the service and the care and support that they received stating that they had developed caring and respectful relationships with the care staff that supported them.
People told us that they felt safe and confident with the care staff that supported them. Staff knew the signs to look for if abuse was suspected and told us of the actions they would take to protect people from abuse.
Care plans detailed people’s identified risks associated with their health and care needs, with clear guidance to staff on how to manage those risks to keep people safe.
Safe medicines management and administration processes in place ensured people received their medicines as prescribed and on time.
People and relatives confirmed that overall they were supported by staff that they knew, who arrived on time and always stayed their full allotted time. Recruitment processes followed ensured that only those staff assessed as safe to work with vulnerable adults were employed.
People were supported by care staff who had been appropriately trained and were skilled in their role. Care staff told us they were regularly supported through supervision and annual appraisals.
People were supported to eat and drink enough where this was an assessed need. The service supported people to lead healthy lives and supported them to access relevant health care services where required.
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.
Care plans were person centred and detailed, giving care staff the appropriate information and guidance to support people with their needs and wishes.
People and relatives knew who to speak with if they had any complaints and were confident their concerns would be dealt with appropriately and in a timely manner.
Management oversight processes in place enabled the service to monitor the quality of care people received. Where issues were identified these were addressed immediately with further learning and development implemented to improve people’s experiences.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection. The service was registered with us on 17 July 2019 and this was the first inspection.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.