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:
This inspection was carried out by one inspector and one 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. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to relatives of people who used the service.
Service and service type: Springcare Support Services is a domiciliary care agency based in Enfield who provide personal care to children and younger adults living with physical disability, learning disabilities and sensory impairment within their own homes. At the time of inspection, the service was supporting 33 people with personal care.
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 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and 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 took place on 2 April 2019. We visited the office location to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
Prior to the inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service including notifications received by the Commission. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to tell us about by law. We asked the service to complete a 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.
During the inspection, we spoke to ten people’s relatives, six support staff, HR manager and recruitment officer. We reviewed four people’s care records which included care plans, risk assessments and medicines records. We reviewed four staff files which included recruitment, training and supervision records. We reviewed other documents related to the running of the service which included staff rotas, complaints records and quality assurance records.
We requested additional evidence to be sent to us after our inspection. This was received and the information was used as part of our inspection.
We received feedback from five health and social care professionals involved with the service.