Date of Assessment: 8 to 10 October 2025. Helping Hands Wimbledon is a home care agency. The service provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. At the time of this inspection, 45 older people were using the service including, 4 people who received home care and support from live-in staff. The home care agency is currently supporting 12 people living with dementia. We undertook this inspection to check the provider had improved and followed the recommendations we made at their last inspection. Previous issues included the coordination of staff visits/shifts and how staff communicated with people. This inspection was conducted by 2 adult social care inspectors and was announced. We gave the provider short notice of our onsite visit because we needed to be sure the manager would be available to support the inspection. We reviewed 15 quality statements in relation to the 2 key questions, Is the service safe and well-led? For all the other key questions which were not reviewed as part of this inspection we used the ratings awarded at their last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The service was rated requires improvement at their last inspection [published 23 November 2023]. Based on the findings of this inspection the services overall rating has now changed from requires improvement to good. This is because we found the service had improved how they now managed staff call visits and shifts. We also found an improvement on communication between people receiving a home care service and the office-based managers and staff. The service had experienced high levels of management turnover in recent years and remained without a registered manager. However, a suitably experienced manager had now been appointed, and they had applied to be the registered manager. The service had a good learning culture and people could raise concerns. Managers investigated incidents thoroughly. Staff understood and managed risks well. Staff had the right skills, knowledge, and experience and received regular and relevant training and supervision. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities. The service detected and controlled potential risks in people’s home environment. Staff managed medicines safely. The service fostered a positive culture where people knew they could speak up and have their voices heard. Staff felt supported to give their feedback and were treated fairly. Managers and staff had shared values based on listening, learning and trust. Managers were knowledgeable and supportive, helping staff develop in their roles. Managers and staff understood their roles and responsibilities. The team worked well with external health and social care professionals and bodies to deliver the best possible care and support. There was a culture of continuous learning and improvement, and people could raise concerns without fear. Managers investigated and reported incidents thoroughly.
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Helping Hands Wimbledon requires improvement overall, with key concerns around inconsistent staff allocation, poor office communication with families and staff, gaps in risk assessment documentation, and insufficient mandatory training in MCA and dementia care. Strengths include safe recruitment, effective medicines management, person-centred care planning, and compassionate care delivery by regular staff.
Concerns (8)
moderateStaffing levels: “In the last week, out of 13 visits we have had 8 different carers. [My relative] needs regular carers and we have raised it but nothing has changed”
moderatePerson-centred care: “We asked for female carers and recently a male carer started to appear, which made [my relative] very anxious and we had to ask them not to send him again.”
moderateStaff training: “staff had limited understanding regarding the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). Some staff could not remember completing the MCA training.”
moderateRecord keeping: “information was not recorded in relation to how the likelihood and severity was determined of the identified risks to people.”
moderateGovernance: “People's satisfaction survey results for June 2023 had also identified issues related to communication but feedback received during the inspection showed little progress being made.”
moderateCommunication with families: “I would say [the service] is not very well led. Difficult to communicate, often they don't listen and don't communicate information from the office to the carers”
minorStaff training: “the service needed, 'A smaller group of carers with more understanding of dementia.'”
minorCommunication with families: “I asked [the office staff] to follow up about the [issue] but it's now 2 days later and I haven't had a call back”
Strengths
· Safe staff recruitment processes were followed including DBS checks, references, and values-based interviews.
· Medicines were managed safely with MAR chart completion and regular audits.
· Risk assessments were individualised and provided clear guidance for staff on mitigating risks.
· Staff used PPE appropriately and infection control practices were effective.
· Care plans were person-centred, reflecting people's choices, life histories and preferences.
Quality-Statement breakdown (20)
safe: Staffing and recruitmentGood
safe: Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuseGood
safe: Assessing risk, safety monitoring and managementRequires improvement
safe: Using medicines safelyGood
safe: Preventing and controlling infectionGood
safe: Learning lessons when things go wrongGood
effective: Staff support; induction, training, skills and experienceRequires improvement
effective: Assessing people's needs and choices; delivering care in line with standards, guidance and the lawGood