About the service:

My Homecare (Birmingham East) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides services to people living with dementia, learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder, mental health, older people and younger adults. At the time of this inspection three people were receiving support from the service.

CQC 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.

People’s experience of using this service:

People who used the service and their relatives told us staff were kind and caring. People were supported to have choice and control of their lives. However, people’s capacity to make decisions about their care had not been assessed to ensure that staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. Policies and systems in the service required reviewing to support this practice. Please see the ‘action we have told the provider to take’ further on in the report.

People’s healthcare needs were being met. However, we couldn’t assess whether medicines were managed safely as support in this area was not provided. Systems were in place to protect people against avoidable harm, abuse, neglect and discrimination. The care they received was safe.

Care plans were up to date. However, they did not detail what care and support people wanted and needed in relation to communication and behaviours that may challenge. Risk assessments were in place. However, there was no risk assessment in place to inform staff how to reduce risk in relation to people’s behaviours.

People's likes, preferences and dislikes were not recorded in people’s care records. However, staff had a good knowledge of people to ensure care was delivered in accordance with people’s preferences. .

Staff were being recruited safely and there were enough staff to take care of people. Staff were receiving appropriate training and they told us the training was good and relevant to their role. Staff were supported by the registered manager and were receiving formal supervision where they could discuss their ongoing development needs.

There was a complaints procedure and people knew how to complain.

Everyone spoke highly of the registered manager who they said was approachable and supportive. There was some quality monitoring in place, however, this was not always effective. Issues around recruitment files, risk assessments and care plans had not been identified.

Rating at last inspection:

This was the first inspection of this service since it registered with CQC on 24 October 2017.

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