Updated 18 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 team consisted of one inspector, an assistant inspector and an expert by experience (ExE). An ExE is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service, older people and dementia care.
Service and service type:
Genuine Care Homecare is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults, people with physical disabilities and people who are living with dementia.
Not everyone using Genuine Care Homecare services 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 consider any wider social care provided.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider were legally responsible for how the service was 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 the manager and staff were 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 25 April 2019 and ended on 26 April 2019. We visited the office location on 25 April 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and related documents.
What we did:
We reviewed information we had received about the service, including feedback from two health and social care professionals and one commissioner. The registered manager had completed a 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.
During inspection we looked at the following:
We spoke with six people using the service, four relatives, a healthcare professional, six members of staff, other senior staff and the registered manager.
We viewed care records, medicines records, records of accidents and incidents, audits and quality assurance reports, feedback received, one staff recruitment file, staff training records and rotas.
Following this inspection, the registered manager provided us with additional information we requested around controlled medicines. We also received further feedback from one relative and a health care professional.