Updated 23 May 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:
Our inspection was completed by one 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 Caring Hands Domiciliary Services Limited receives a 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 who was 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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that the manager would be available to facilitate the inspection.
The Inspection site visit activity started on 02 April 2019. We visited the office location on 02 and 05 April 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff, and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service including previous inspection reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to send to us. We considered information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
During the inspection we spoke with eight people who use the service and three relatives by telephone. We spoke with the registered manager, the director, one field care supervisor and four care staff. We looked at care records for six people, medicines records and recruitment records for four care staff. We looked at other records in relation to the management of the service, such as health and safety, minutes of staff meetings and quality assurance records.
Following the inspection, we also received feedback from two healthcare professionals.