Updated 7 June 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 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, in this case a service for older people and people living with dementia.
Service and service type:
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults, younger disabled adults, people with learning disabilities and on the autistic spectrum, people living with dementia, younger adults, people with physical disabilities and sensory impairments and people with mental health needs.
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 three working days’ notice of the inspection site visit because the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. Inspection site visit activity started on 14 May 2019 and ended on 14 May 2019. We visited the office location on this date to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed the evidence we already held about this service. This included details of its registration, previous inspection reports and any notifications of significant events the provider had sent us. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. 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. We contacted the local authority with responsibility for commissioning care from the service to seek their views.
During the inspection we reviewed five sets of records relating to people who used the service including care plans, risk assessments and medicine records. We looked at five sets of staff recruitment, training and supervision records and also minutes of team meetings. We checked various policies and procedures including those relating to safeguarding adults, complaints, medicines and infection control. We looked at the various quality assurance and monitoring systems that were in place. We spoke with eight staff; the registered manager, assistant manager, administrator, care supervisor, care coordinator and three care assistants.
After the inspection we conducted telephone interviews with one person who used the service and 11 relatives.