About the service

Helping Hands Preston provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. Not everyone using received a regulated activity. The Care Quality Commission only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection the service was providing personal care to 22 people.

People’s experience of using this service People told us they received safe care and treatment. They spoke positively about the care staff and the support they provided. The registered manager had procedures for protecting people against risks of harm and for reporting safeguarding concerns. The care delivered was consistently safe, reliable and person-centred.

The registered manager had assessed people’s needs and provided staff with guidance on how these needs were to be met. People were supported with the safe use of medicines. Staff had received training in safe medicines management and had access to national guidance and best practice.

Staff showed a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities for keeping people safe from harm. Individual and environmental risks had been assessed to minimise the risk of harm to people and staff during care visits. There was a lone working policy and after-hours support to assist staff when working on their own and after hours.

People received support to maintain good nutrition and hydration and their healthcare needs were understood and met.

Staff supported people to have maximum choice and control of their lives, the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. They sought consent before delivering care.

People told us staff visited as planned and they were punctual. The registered manager had processes for monitoring visits however this was not fully operational. Plans were in place to roll out the visit monitoring technology to enable the provider to monitor whether staff were visiting as planned.

Staff had received a range of training and support to enable them to carry out their role safely. They were provided with one to one supervision including announced spot checks while in the community.

People and family members knew how to make a complaint and they were confident about complaining should they need to. They were confident that their complaint would be listened to and acted upon quickly. Previous complaints had been dealt with appropriately.

Governance arrangements were in place to monitor and improve the care delivered. The provider had monitored the registered manager to ensure they were complying with regulations.

The leadership of the service promoted a positive culture within the staff team. The registered manager showed they were committed to improving the service and displayed knowledge and understanding around the importance of working closely with other agencies and healthcare professionals where needed.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

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