COMMUNITY-spirited home care agency Right at Home GF has been rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the services it provides across Farnham and the neighbouring towns of Fleet, Aldershot, Guildford and Godalming.

Located in Farnham since 2012, Right at Home GF is the only Farnham-based home care provider to have this highly-coveted independent assessment of its overall service.

The ambitious and expanding local employer opened a second office in Bordon at the end of last year. The growing team of caregivers who are based at Right at Home GF’s sister office support clients across Alton, Bordon and Hindhead. This new office is yet to be inspected by the CQC.

Inspectors from the independent regulator of health and social care made their unannounced visit in January.

To inform their judgement on whether the service was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led, the inspectors visited people who receive care from Right at Home GF, spoke with relatives, talked with staff and reviewed a range of documents about people’s care and how the service was managed.

In a glowing report about the service, the inspectors said they had found ‘people received an exceptionally personalised service’ and that ‘there was a great commitment to ensuring people lived fulfilling lives’.

They also described how they ‘found numerous examples of where staff had gone the extra mile to support people to achieve their goals and respond to their needs’ and that the ‘service had an active presence in the local community’.

Speaking about the outstanding CQC assessment, Right at Home GF’s managing director Alastair Shanks (pictured) said: “I cannot describe how proud I feel of the Right at Home team. This achievement is testament to how hard the team work and how much they care for each and every one of our clients.

“The special relationship our caregivers have with their clients and the effort they make to ensure everybody is treated as an individual really shone through in the inspectors’ findings.

“Over the past couple of months, there has been a great deal of focus on the provision of care for older people. I am so delighted that even before the coronavirus outbreak, our caregivers were setting very high standards for the care they provide.

“This fact was acknowledged by the inspectors and they also gave a special mention to the steps caregivers always take to prevent and control infection.

“I am also thrilled the inspectors highlighted our safe recruitment practices which ensure we are able to employ some of the best caregivers around.”