Updated 4 July 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by an adult social care inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type:
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
Not everyone using the service receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.
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.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service notice of this inspection visit to be sure that a member of the management team would be available.
What we did:
On 24 April 2019 we visited the office location.
Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service, which included a review of the previous report for this service and a review of notifications they had sent us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.
The provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information providers must send us to give us key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed this information as part of our inspection planning.
At the inspection visit we looked at three people’s care records
We checked staff recruitment, training and supervision records for two staff. We also looked at a range of records about how the service was managed, including audits, complaints records and minutes of meetings.
We spoke with the nominated individual, who manages the service alongside the registered manager.
After the inspection we spoke by phone with eight people who used the service and one person’s relative, to seek their views.
We spoke with six members of staff.
We also sought feedback from the service’s partner professionals including two healthcare and two social care staff.