Updated 2 March 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 undertaken by one inspector, an assistant inspector and two experts by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of caring for someone who uses this type of care service. In this case the expert by experience had experience of domiciliary services.
Service and service type:
• Alina Homecare – Rustington is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses or flats. It provides a service to younger and older adults, those living with a learning or physical disability, mental ill-health and dementia. Not everyone using the service receives the 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. There were 100 people using the service, 98 of whom received the regulated activity of personal care.
• The service had a manager who was registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager 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. The management team consisted of the registered manager, a care manager and supervisors. A regional manager and representatives from the provider’s quality team regularly visited and supported the management team.
Notice of inspection:
• The inspection was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice as we wanted to ensure that people using the service were expecting our calls and were available to speak with us.
What we did:
• Before the inspection we used information, the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return (PIR). Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.
• We looked at information we held about the service including notifications they had made to us about important events.
• We reviewed information sent to us from other stakeholders such as the local authority and members of the public.
During the inspection:
• We spoke with 16 people, 16 relatives, 10 members of staff and the registered manager.
• We reviewed a range of records about people’s care and how the service was managed. These included the individual care records and medicine administration records for ten people, four staff records, quality assurance audits, incident reports and records relating to the management of the service.