Helping Angels Ltd

Updated 11 May 2022

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

The Inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses. It provides a service to older adults, younger disabled adults and children. This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

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 that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. We visited the office location on 13 April 2022 and 14 April 2022 to meet with the registered manager, office staff and care staff. We spoke with people who used the service and some staff by telephone.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection, we spoke with three people who used the service and eight family members to ask about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 13 members of staff, which included the registered manager, senior staff, care staff, and chaperones. A chaperone's main responsibility was to supervise people during outings, to ensure they reached their destination safely. We reviewed a range of records including five people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 11 May 2022

About the service

Helping Angels Ltd is registered to provide personal care support to people living in their own homes in the community. People who used the service included older adults (some of whom were living with dementia) with physical health needs and disabled young adults and children. At the time of our inspection, 85 people were receiving personal care. 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 provider had learnt lessons when things went wrong. Following a recent concern raised the provider had acted quickly and implemented policies and procedures to ensure safe ways of working.

People felt safe in their home and with the staff who supported them.

Staff were recruited safely and received a comprehensive induction.

Risk assessments were robust and updated regularly. People told us calls were on time and if there was a potential issue regarding a call, they were informed straight away.

Staff received safeguarding training. They described how they could recognise unsafe care practices and the action they would take to report poor practice.

People felt involved in the care provided. People told us they were informed following any changes and their opinions were sought. Staff felt they could offer suggestions to improve the care provided. There was a culture of learning from when things went wrong.

The registered manager and staff understood their roles, and were clear about quality performance, risks and regulatory requirements.

Audits were carried out regularly to monitor and review care provided. These successfully picked up on discrepancies and enabled the provider to act to reduce mistakes from occurring in the future.

The service worked in partnership with other professionals and other care providers to achieve good outcomes for people. Staff members and people had confidence in the registered manager and understood the core values of the organisation.

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 22 December 2017).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing and poor risk management. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

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 not changed following this focused inspection and remains Good.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Helping Angels Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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