About the service: Hallam 24 Healthcare is a domiciliary care service that was providing personal care to 55 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were happy with the service they received and felt staff were dedicated, well trained, kind and respectful. Staff demonstrated a positive attitude to people’s safety, care and support.

Risks were identified but not always thoroughly, and medicines management was not robust.

We have made a recommendation about assessing and monitoring risk.

Staff were recruited safely and there were enough staff, although we received mixed views from staff about the timings of their visits to people.

Staff had training and supervision, although this was not always robust or clearly recorded and there was a limited overview of staff skills within the whole service. Some staff did not feel they had enough training, although others felt they were suitably trained.

We have made a recommendation about training, supervision and spot checks.

Staff understood how the service was run and gave positive feedback on the whole, although not all staff were clear who the registered manager was and related more to the director. Staff reported feeling well supported with good teamwork and morale overall. The service had recently increased the number of people they supported, although quality audits and recording to show how the service was being run had not been made sufficiently robust to reflect the growing demands of the service.

We have made a recommendation about quality assurance.

People were supported by staff who were kind and caring. Staff said the care would be good enough for their own relatives overall. Care records were not always robust enough to give staff up to date information and there were limited ways to share records with individuals who may have a sensory impairment.

We have made a recommendation about people’s care records.

The provider recorded and responded to complaints and compliments and valued people’s feedback about the service. The provider was keen to develop robust partnership working and consider how any learning from issues raised could be used to improve the service.

Rating at last inspection: Good (report published 26 August 2016). At this inspection, the rating has dropped to Requires Improvement.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the previous inspection.

Follow up: The service will continue to be monitored in line with our inspection programme and if information of concern is raised this will be investigated.

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

The inspection took place on 16 August 2016 with the provider being given short notice of the visit to the office. This was the first comprehensive inspection of the service which was registered with the Care Quality Commission in June 2014.

Hallam 24 Healthcare is a domiciliary care service. They are registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting people with a variety of care needs including older people and people living with dementia. Care and support was co-ordinated from the services office which is based in Barnsley.

There is a registered manager which oversees services provided from the office. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At the time of our inspection there were five people using the service. We spoke on the telephone with two people who used the service and three relatives. We asked people about their experiences of using the agency. People we spoke with told us they were entirely happy with the service provided.

People told us they felt safe in their own homes and staff were available to offer support when needed, to help them maintain their independence. One person told us, “The staff are loving and kind. Nothing is too much trouble for them.”

People’s needs had been assessed before their care package commenced and they told us they had been involved in formulating and updating their care plans. We found the information contained in the care records we sampled was individualised and identified people’s needs and preferences, as well as any risks associated with their care and the environment they lived in.

We found people received a service that was based on their personal needs and wishes. Changes in people’s needs were quickly identified and their care package amended to meet their changing circumstances. Where people needed support taking their medication this was undertaken in a timely way by staff that had been trained to carry out this role.

The recruitment of staff was safe which ensured staff were employed with all of the required employment checks. There was sufficient trained staff employed to ensure people received their care consistently. People told us that they received support from the same care workers.

People were able to raise any concerns they may have had. We saw the service user guide included ‘how to make a complaint.’ This was written in a suitable format for people who used the service. Relative we spoke with told us they were confident that any concerns that they needed to make would be dealt with swiftly.

People were encouraged to give their views about the quality of the care provided to help drive up standards. The quality assurance systems were effective in identifying areas for improvement. This gave the service an opportunity to learn from events and improve the service for people.