Updated 22 January 2020
The inspection
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection team consisted of one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. At the time of our inspection the registered manager was on a training course and the assistant manager supported us with the inspection process.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
What we did before the inspection
Prior to the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service. This included notifications received from the provider about deaths, accidents/incidents and safeguarding alerts which they are required to send us by law. We also contacted the local authority who commissioned services from this provider.
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
During the inspection
During the inspection process we spoke on the telephone with eight people and or their relatives about their care. We spoke with seven members of staff including care staff, care coordinators, the assistant manager, registered manager and the provider.
We looked at the care records for four people who used the service and three staff files. We looked at a range of records relating to the running of the service. This included incident and accident records, auditing systems and complaints.
After the inspection
We carried out additional calls to people and staff and continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. The additional information we requested from the registered manager was provided to us in a timely way.