CQC report

In its report CQC identified the following as key strengths

• Staff demonstrated a good understanding of people's needs and how to support their safety and wellbeing.
• The minimum care visit was for one hour, allowing staff to spend time with people in their care, build up a relationship and fully understand the things that were important to them.
• Our inspectors saw effective processes to ensure that any concerns about a person using the service were recorded, so that their wellbeing could be monitored.
• Ongoing training was tailored to individual members of staff and their particular development needs, and there was a robust induction programme.
• The service found innovative ways of supporting important areas of wellbeing – such as introducing a weekly menu planner for people who needed support at mealtimes.
• Care planning addressed social and emotional needs as well as health and physical ones – for example identifying the risk of isolation or the loss of independence.
• Managers had developed a positive culture based on strong values, which they promoted through training, supervision and strong leadership.

Home Instead also won praise for its strong links in the local community. One initiative the report highlights is the registered manager's delivery of dementia awareness training to the public – including bank and shop staff – to help them understand how to help people with dementia that they come into contact with.