Both areas – supporting people’s wellbeing and leadership – were evaluated as “good” by Care Inspectorate Inspectors following an unannounced visit between 31 July and 10 August 2023.

The service supports adults in their own homes and staff provide personal care, help with meals and support with medication.

Key messages included:

• People were satisfied with the care and support provided by the service.
• The recent management team had identified areas that required improvement and were making early progress to take the service forward.
• Improvements needed to be made with communications, support plan documentation, medication administration and staff training and development.
• Work had been carried out to promote consistency of care through recruitment of staff and better organisation of staff teams.
• Inspectors had confidence in the management team’s ability to improve and sustain improvement within the service.

The Inspectors stated in the report: “We observed warm, genuine, kind and respectful interactions when staff provided support. Support was carried out in an unhurried way dictated by the pace of the person being supported. Personal care was carried out discreetly and the privacy of each person was maintained. We heard many positive comments around the support provided by staff.

“Staff struck a good balance when supporting people - encouraging individuals to participate and use the skills that they have. The Home First team demonstrated effective approaches in helping people regain levels of independence.

“Mainstream homecare staff also took a re-ablement approach which meant people were encouraged to remain as independent as possible and involved in making decisions about their day-to-day support. Staff linked with other agencies both within and outwith the organisation to benefit people and followed the principles of the good practice guidance Care About Physical Activity (CAPA) to promote and maintain people’s mobility.

“The service manager demonstrated good leadership skills and was clearly committed to working partnership with staff of all levels to help take the service forward. There continued to be a recruitment drive to fill vacant posts. Changes had been made to teams of care at home assistants to help promote continuity of support. Feedback from people we spoke with supported that continuity of care had recently improved.

“The management team had made a positive impact in reducing the waiting list for people referred to the service, meaning they were effectively targeting people with the greatest need for support.”

Lynda Bradford, head of Health and Community Care, said: “This praise for our Care at Home staff - from those providing the frontline services to the managers supporting them to do that – has been rightly earned thanks to their hard work, commitment and a desire to ensure every person being supported at home is given the care they deserve.

“These are strong foundations on which to continue building.”

Areas for improvement included:

• The provider should ensure that people are fully informed in advance when there are changes made to staff cover.
• Each person should have an up-to-date support plan which reflects their current needs, wishes and preferences and provides sufficient information to guide and direct staff when they provide support.
• The provider should review the current medication policy, procedure and associated recording system used when staff provide support in administering medication.