The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care provided by Mill Farm in Market Harborough to be 'outstanding' overall following an inspection carried out in June.
Home Care Harborough Limited runs the home care agency that provides support and personal care to people with physical disabilities, dementia, mental health problems and learning disabilities living in their own homes.
It is part of the Home Instead group of care services and on the day of CQC’s inspection there were 50 people using the service.
Inspectors found staff were caring and compassionate and people were being provided with safe, responsive, caring, effective and well-led care.
Under CQC’s programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Mill Farm was rated 'outstanding' overall, 'outstanding' for being effective and responsive and 'good' for being safe, caring and well-led.
Rob Assall-Marsden, CQC’s head of inspection for adult social care in the central region, says:
“We were impressed with what we found during our inspection of Mill Farm in Market Harborough.
“We found that people were cared for and supported by staff who received excellent and innovative training and support to ensure that they understood how to meet their needs in the most personalised way.
“Staff were encouraged and rewarded for going the 'extra mile' and the service regularly sought out new ideas and contacts to help develop staff and improve care.
“People and their relatives told us that they received care and support that had a significant positive impact on their lives and staff were caring and compassionate. Risk assessments were in place to enable people to be as independent as possible and people were supported by those staff that understood them and could care for them in a consistent manner.
“Staff were knowledgeable about people's needs and preferences and had developed caring relationships with them. The service also supported staff where they had experienced a death of a person who used the service.
“The service collaborated with other organisations, such as The Women's Institute and fire service, to raise awareness of dementia and where people could be vulnerable to scams.
“Recruitment processes were robust and people were not recruited unless they demonstrated they were caring and compassionate.
“People told us that when they expressed preferences about their care and support these were acted upon by the service and they knew how to raise concerns if they felt they had to. They were also confident they would be taken seriously by the provider if they raised concerns, but said they had never had cause to raise concerns.
“All of this meant people received a high standard of care, which is why it has been rated 'outstanding'.”
Home Instead Senior Care operates a number of care services across Britain and this is the tenth of its services to be rated 'otstanding following a CQC inspection.
Andrea Sutcliffe, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care, says:“I am tremendously pleased to be able to congratulate Home Instead on their tenth 'outstanding' rating.
“From speaking at their annual conference last month to around 750 members of their passionate workforce, I can confidently say that there is something very special about them and I know how committed they are about making a difference for the people they support.
“Home Instead is a great example of how excellent care can be achieved by care services – which is what we all want to see.”
