Updated 30 July 2021
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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
This inspection was completed by two inspectors and one Expert by Experience. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people and their relatives to obtain feedback about their experience of the care provided. 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
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
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. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 18 June 2021 and ended on 25 June 2021. We visited the office location on 25 June 2020.
What we did before the inspection
Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included incidents the provider must tell us about, such as any safeguarding alerts that had been raised. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with two people and one relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with one member of staff and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at care records, medicines management and quality assurance records