What a CQC Rating Means and How to Choose Home Care in Chingford
What a CQC rating means and how to choose home care in Chingford, with real examples from our Chingford office's inspection report.
What a CQC Rating Means and How to Choose Home Care in Chingford
When someone you love needs a little more help at home, the first question is rarely about ratings. It’s about who will be coming through the door, whether they’ll be kind, and whether they’ll turn up when they say they will. At Home Instead Chingford, we provide home care in Chingford, offering personal care and companionship for older people in their own homes.
An independent inspection report can offer a useful second opinion. Below is what the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found when it inspected our Chingford office, and how to use a CQC report when choosing care.
What does "CQC registered" mean?
The CQC is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. Organisations that provide personal care in people’s homes must be registered with it. That means meeting legal standards of safety and quality, having a registered manager who is legally responsible for the service, and being open to inspection. Reports are published for anyone to read, so it’s a good place to start when comparing CQC registered care providers in Chingford.
The CQC rates services as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate across five questions: is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led? The CQC doesn’t endorse or recommend individual providers. A report describes what inspectors found at a particular point in time.
What the CQC found at our Chingford office
Our Chingford office is registered with the CQC as Home Instead Senior Care and is run by Glendora Care Limited from Station Road, E4. The report was published on 5 January 2021, following an inspection in November 2020. It was part of a CQC pilot of virtual inspections during the Covid-19 pandemic, carried out with our consent, so inspectors did not visit our office. They spoke with five people who use our service and eight relatives, and also with our registered manager and nominated individual.
Our Chingford office was rated Good overall. This inspection looked at two of the five questions and rated us Good for both Safe and Well-led. The other three were only partly reviewed and weren’t re-rated, so their ratings stay as given at the previous inspection (published January 2019): Good for effective, Outstanding for caring and Good for responsive.
Safe care at home
The report found that staff knew about safeguarding and whistleblowing, people had risk assessments, and staff were recruited safely, including criminal record checks. People and relatives confirmed staff followed infection control procedures, and carers told inspectors they had enough PPE. Relatives described a regular, punctual team, and one said carers had “never missed a visit.”
What people and relatives told inspectors
People and relatives described our carers as caring, and one relative called them “thorough and conscientious.” The report also records how a carer helped one person who had become isolated to reconnect with a cultural group they had belonged to, and to rediscover memorabilia including a family tree. This comes from the caring section, which wasn’t re-rated at this inspection.
Well-led
People, relatives and staff all spoke positively about the leadership of the service. The report noted regular quality checks, including monthly checks of care records, announced and unannounced visits to observe carers, telephone monitoring and satisfaction surveys. In our 2020 staff survey every team member responded, and all said they were proud to work for us.
Working with the Chingford community
The report records our work with other professionals and local organisations, including the fire service, the police and crime prevention agencies. It also notes the fraud awareness toolkit we developed and shared with Age UK.
Where the CQC made a recommendation
We believe in being open. The CQC recommended that we consider current guidance on checking the accuracy of medicines information and on thoroughly investigating medicines-related incidents. The report notes that our registered manager corrected the records when this was raised.
Questions to ask any provider of home care in Chingford
- Are you CQC registered, and can I read your latest report? What date is it?
- Will I have a regular, consistent carer?
- How do you match carers to clients?
- How do you check the quality of care you provide?
- What happens if a visit is running late?
FAQs (Frequently asked questions)
- Is Home Instead Chingford CQC registered? Yes. Our Chingford office is registered with the Care Quality Commission.
- What type of care do you provide? Personal care and companionship for older people in their own homes in and around Chingford.
- Where can I read your inspection report? On the CQC website, by searching for Home Instead Chingford. (You can read the full report here)
How can we help?
We've helped thousands of families to stay safe, comfortable and happy at home. Whatever situation you're facing, or whatever the question is, Home Instead is here to help.
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