About the service:

• North London Bikur Cholim Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people in the Jewish Orthodox community living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to younger and older adults, people with physical disabilities, sensory impairments, mental health needs, learning disabilities or dementia.

• The provider has one domiciliary care agency within their registration.

• The service’s office is based in Stamford Hill, and personal care is provided to people in surrounding areas.

• At the time of the inspection it was providing a service to 22 people.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People were protected against avoidable harm, abuse, neglect and discrimination. The care they received was very safe.

• People's risks were assessed and strategies put in place to mitigate the risks.

• People's likes, preferences and dislikes were assessed and care packages met people's desired expectations.

• Relatives provided consistently positive feedback about the care, staff and management. They said the service was caring, timely, effective and well-led.

• People's care was person-centred. The care was designed to ensure people's independence was encouraged and maintained.

• People and their relatives were involved in the care planning and review of their care.

• The service had a stable management structure. The provider had implemented systems to ensure they continuously measured the safety of people's care and quality of the service.

• The service met the characteristics for a rating of "good" in all the key questions we inspected. Therefore, our overall rating for the service after this inspection was "good".

• More information is in our full report.

Rating at last inspection:

• Good (report published 6 September 2016)

Why we inspected:

• This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive.

• We made a recommendation in our inspection report, which we will follow up at our next inspection.

We inspected North London Bikur Cholim Limited on 19 July 2016. The inspection was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice to ensure the key people we needed to speak with were available. Our last inspection took place on the 9 January 2014 and we found that the provider was meeting all of the regulations that we checked.

North London Bikur Cholim Limited is a voluntary organisation that provides domiciliary care services to people within the Orthodox Jewish community in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the agency was providing personal care and support to 17 adults and seven children.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

The provider worked with external organisations to ensure people were kept safe from harm. People were protected from harm because staff knew what to do if they suspected abuse had occurred.

There were sufficient staff with the correct skill mix to support people with their care needs. Recruitment processes were in place and followed by the service to ensure the staff employed were suitable for the role.

People received personalised care that reflected their choice and promoted their involvement in the local community. Staff ensured people’s cultural and religious needs were met and received training that was reflective of people’s needs.

People were supported to make decisions about all aspects of their life; this was underpinned by the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005. Staff were knowledgeable about the MCA and sought consent from people before providing care.

There were appropriate systems to ensure medicines were managed safely. Staff had received appropriate medicines training.

People were supported with their nutritional and dietary requirements based on their cultural needs.

Changes in people’s healthcare needs were identified by care workers and immediate intervention was sought.

Care plans were person centred to reflect the care that people wanted. Staff demonstrated person centred care was the focus of care delivery.

People were encouraged to express their views about how their care and support was delivered. Relatives described the staff as outstanding and said they had made a difference to people’s lives.

The complaints procedure was accessible and people were aware of how to raise any concerns. Any concerns were listened to and responded to appropriately.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities and was committed to providing compassionate care. People’s relatives spoke positively about how the service was managed. Staff told us they felt valued and proud to work for the service.

Quality assurance systems were used to measure and review the delivery of care, and drive continuous improvement.

During this inspection we spoke with two people who used the service and the relatives of three other people. We also spoke with the manager, the deputy manager and five care workers. People who used the service told us they were happy with the care. One person using the service said, "I think this agency is something wonderful. They are all very nice people who are understanding. I am so lucky and I could not find any fault." The relative of a person using the service told us, "the care workers are wonderful. [My relative] is so happy when he sees them. The care workers are very in tune with his needs."

There were systems in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse.

Staff told us they received training and support to meet the needs of people using the service.

The provider listened to the views of people using the service and monitored the quality of people's care and support.

We spoke with four people or their relatives who use North London Bikur Cholim Limited. People spoke positively about the service and the care they received. People told us that they were involved in their care.

People told us the service provided met their individual needs. One person said “they know exactly who my mother is and give her the care she needs”

The provider had a training program for supporting and developing staff but records of training did not correspond with this.