Home Instead Westminster

Home Instead Westminster is a domiciliary care agency which provides the regulated activity of 'personal care' to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults, people with physical disabilities and people living with dementia who reside in the City of Westminster, City of London and some postcodes within the London Boroughs of Brent, Hackney and Southwark. The geographical boundaries were determined by the national franchise organisation. Not everyone using Home Instead Westminster receives regulated activity, the Care Quality Commission (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. At the time of the inspection the provider was providing services for 40 people, which included six people who received personal care.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection, who was the owner of the local franchise. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC 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.

People and their representatives told us that they received an excellent service and felt confident about recommending the agency to other people. They described staff as being "lovely" and "kind" and spoke about situations where staff had shown enormous compassion and thoughtfulness. People and their representatives stated that the high quality of the service had very positively impacted on their comfort, wellbeing and safety. Staff told us that they had developed good relationships with the people they supported. This was aided by the provider's policies to carefully match people with their care staff and

ensure that all visits were a minimum of two hours duration.

People and their representatives regarded the management team as being dedicated to their roles and committed to providing an exceptionally high standard of care and support. We saw that the registered manager and members of the management team keenly worked towards supporting people living with dementia who used the service and at a wider level in the local community via fundraising, providing free training about dementia for the general public and through active membership of a local dementia care alliance.

Staff informed us that they felt well supported and trained by a provider that valued their contribution, and was interested in their wellbeing and career development. The provider had invested in the staff training to support people who were living with dementia and was in the process of introducing a new training package to support staff to develop their knowledge and skills in the provision of end of life care. The culture of the service was described by staff as being "open" and "supportive."

There were clear systems in place to ensure the safety of people who used the service. Staff had received training to identify if people were at risk from abuse or harm. People reported that they felt safe with staff. Sufficient staff were deployed to ensure that people received a consistently reliable service and recruitment procedures to appoint new staff were thorough.

The provider ensured that people's needs were assessed before their care and support package commenced. People were provided with person-centred care which took into account their needs, wishes, preferences, and any cultural and/or religious needs. Staff supported people to meet their nutritional and health care needs. Local health and social care professionals informed us that people received extremely well delivered care and support from the provider.

People received support from staff with their medicine needs, in line with their own wishes to remain as independent as possible.

People were supported by staff who respected their privacy and promoted their dignity. Staff encouraged people to take part in meaningful and stimulating activities to promote their wellbeing.

The provider had a straight -forward complaints policy and procedure in place, and people stated that they trusted the provider to investigate complaints in a professional manner.

The provider had developed positive relationships with local organisations in order to develop and improve the quality of the service. This included an initiative to advise people and their representatives about the risks presented by financial scams.

There were rigorous systems in place to seek the views of people who used the service, and monitor the quality of the service through the use of tools that included spot checks, care planning review meetings and audits.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found