Updated 14 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: One adult social care inspector and an expert by experience formed the inspection team. 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: Nationwide Care Services (Erdington) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to adults living in their own homes.
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 a care agency. We needed to be sure someone would be available to speak with and show us records. Inspection site visit activity started and ended on 11 February 2019. We visited the office location on this date to speak with the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. Phone calls to people and their family members also took place on this date.
What we did: Before we visited the service we checked the information we held about this location and the service provider, for example, inspection history, statutory notifications and complaints. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send to CQC by law. We contacted professionals involved in caring for people who used the service, including commissioners and safeguarding staff. We also contacted Healthwatch. Healthwatch is the local consumer champion for health and social care services. They give consumers a voice by collecting their views, concerns and compliments through their engagement work. Information provided by these professionals was used to inform the inspection.
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.
During the inspection: We spoke with five people who used the service and seven family members. We spoke with the registered manager, office manager and five care staff. We looked at the care records of four people who used the service and the personnel files for four members of staff.