The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Walfinch Chiswick, Hammersmith & Kensington, a domiciliary care service, outstanding following an inspection in November 2024.
Walfinch Chiswick, Hammersmith & Kensington is run by West London Home Care Limited. The service was supporting 29 people at the time of this inspection, 11 of whom were being supported with care regulated by CQC.
This was the first inspection of the service by CQC.
Following this inspection, the service has been rated outstanding overall, as well as for caring and well-led. It has been rated good for safe, effective, and responsive.
Catriona Eglinton, CQC deputy director of operations in London, said:
“When we inspected the service, we were impressed by the safe, kind, and personalised support staff gave people. Leaders had developed a collaborative and open culture in which everyone worked together to find improvements to people’s care.
“People told us staff were friendly, respectful and well-qualified. They also said they appreciated that they were usually cared for by the same staff who knew them well, and who paid attention to small details to improve their quality of life.
“We saw staff were very competent, assessed people’s needs well, and knew specific details of people’s preferences, such as their favourite tv shows and when they were broadcast. They supported people to follow their interests and maintain their social and family connections, and celebrated birthdays and holidays with them. We found they sometimes went out with people for a coffee or a bite to eat to help improve their wellbeing.
“Staff used these close relationships to plan people’s care in partnership with them, their relatives, and other healthcare professionals. They supported people to be as independent as possible, minimising risks to their safety while also supporting them to take acceptable risks when they could and wished to do so.
“Leaders led by example, supporting their staff to go the extra mile and take pride in their work. On Valentine’s Day, they asked staff to think of small but meaningful gestures they could do to bring joy to people using the service, and then also held a celebration for the staff themselves.
“We saw leaders encouraged and acted on feedback from both people using the service and their staff. They had clear oversight of people’s care, and when people raised concerns or things had gone wrong, we found they’d thoroughly investigated and learned from these incidents to improve their care in future.
“Staff and leaders are right to be proud of the care they’re providing here. We’ve shared our findings with the service, and we hope others look to this report as an example of great practice.”
Inspectors also found:
- Staff communicated with people in ways they could understand and gave them time to make decisions.
- People said staff turned up for care visits on time or let them know about any delay, and sometimes stayed later than planned if important tasks took longer than usual or someone felt distressed.
- Leaders had given staff good training and access to learning opportunities, including in specific areas such as supporting people with depression or dementia.
- Staff respected people’s consent and supported them in the least restrictive ways possible.
- Staff supported people to follow healthier lifestyles while maintaining their rights to make their own choices.
- Staff worked near to where they lived, so also had local knowledge of activities and organisations people might enjoy or find useful, such as a local dementia café.
- The service supported people to stay engaged with their local community, and had hosted a local event to help people better understand dementia.
- Staff knew how to give people their medicines safely and people said they received them on time.
- Staff knew when to alert healthcare professionals to concerns about people’s health.
- Leaders were experienced and had clear responsibilities. Staff said they felt very supported.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the coming days.