About the service:

¿ Cambridgeshire Homecare is a domiciliary care agency.

¿ The agency office is in Peterborough. Care is provided in the Peterborough, Wisbech, Ely, Soham and the surrounding areas.

¿ It provides personal care to both older and younger adults living in their own houses and flats. It also provides a service to children.

¿ At the time of our inspection, no children received the regulated activity personal care and therefore we did not inspect this aspect of the service.

¿ There were 114 adults receiving personal care at the time of our inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ People were protected from avoidable harm by a staff team trained and confident to recognise and report any concerns. Potential risks to people were assessed and minimised.

¿ There were enough staff to ensure people’s needs were met safely and in a timely manner.

¿ People were supported to manage their prescribed medicines by staff who were trained and had been assessed as competent to administer medicines.

¿ Staff followed the provider’s procedures to prevent the spread of infection and reduce the risk of cross contamination.

¿ Staff knew the people they cared for well and understood, and met, their needs.

¿ People received care from staff who were trained and well supported to meet people’s assessed needs.

¿ Staff supported people to have enough to eat and drink.

¿ Staff supported people to access external healthcare services to help maintain their health and well-being.

¿ People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were fully involved in making decisions about their care and support. However, decisions had not always been clearly recorded.

¿ People and their relatives were involved in the setting up and review of their or their family member’s individual support and care plans.

¿ Staff were kind, caring and friendly. Staff respected and promoted people’s privacy, dignity and independence.

¿ People’s individual needs were assessed and staff used this information to deliver personalised care that met people’s needs.

¿ Staff supported well at the end of their lives.

¿ Staff worked in partnership with other professionals to ensure that people received care that met their needs.

¿ People’s suggestions and complaints were listened to, investigated, and acted upon to reduce the risk of recurrence.

¿ The registered manager sought feedback from people about the quality of the service provided.

¿ Audits and quality monitoring checks were carried out to help drive improvements.

Rating at last inspection:

¿ The service had been operating for a number of years, but this was the first inspection following a change of provider on 1 December 2017.

Why we inspected:

¿ This was a planned inspection following registration with Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Follow up:

¿ We will continue to monitor all information we receive about the service and schedule the next inspection accordingly.

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