About the service: Helping Hands is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care to adults with a range of support needs in their own homes.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. Helping Hands was providing personal care to 35 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they were treated with kindness and spoke warmly about staff that supported them. One person told us, “I haven’t found carers better than these, they really are first class.” People were treated with dignity and respect and were supported to express their views and be involved in making decisions about how they wanted their care and support.

People and their relatives had no concerns about their safety. They told us staff understood their needs and supported them to be safe when providing care. One person said, “I have never felt at risk. I’ve been very impressed by the care I get.” Staff had received training in safeguarding vulnerable people and told us they had full confidence that the management team would act on any concerns raised.

Staff were recruited safely and there were enough staff to meet people's needs. Staff received appropriate training and they told us the training was very good. People commented positively on the competence and skills of staff. One person told us, “I’m confident they know what they are doing. They are better trained and knowledgeable than I expected.”

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 supported to have choice and control of the care and support they received.

Staff knew people well and could tell us about people's physical and health needs explaining how they supported them to be safe, whilst maintaining their independence. Care records did not always contain risk assessments or care plans related to some specific health needs. We made a recommendation to the provider about this.

Other risk assessments and care plans were extremely detailed and provided staff with the information they needed to support people in line with their preferences. People and their relatives were involved in developing and reviewing their care plans.

People had the opportunity to provide feedback on the service they received, and the provider had a quality assurance system and completed audits to monitor the quality and safety of the service. Systems and processes were in place to review accidents, incidents, complaints and safeguarding concerns

Rating at last inspection: This was our first inspection of the service.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection.

Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our inspection schedule for services rated Good.

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