Updated 13 March 2018
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
The inspection took place on the 31 January 2018 and was announced. This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because we needed to be sure that someone would be available to meet with us. The inspection team consisted of one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is someone who has had experience of working with this type of service.
As part of the inspection process we looked at information we already held about the provider. Providers are required to notify the Care Quality Commission about specific events and incidents that occur including serious injuries to people receiving care and any incidences that put people at risk of harm. We refer to these as notifications. We checked if the provider had sent us notifications in order to plan the areas we wanted to focus on during our inspection. The provider had sent us a Provider Information Return (PIR) before the inspection. A PIR is a form that asks the provider to give key information about the home, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed regular quality reports sent to us by the local authority to see what information they held about the service. These are reports that tell us if the local authority commissioners have concerns about the service they purchase on behalf of people. We also contacted the local authority for information they held about the service and reviewed the Healthwatch website, which provides information on health and social care providers. This helped us to plan the inspection.
The provider sent us a list of people who used the service. We contacted people by telephone on 01 February 2018 and spoke with two people and five relatives to gather their views on the service being delivered. We also spoke with the registered manager (who is also the provider) and three care staff. We used this information to form part of our judgement.
We looked at four people’s care records to see how their care and treatment was planned and delivered. Other records looked at included two recruitment files to check suitable staff members were recruited. The provider’s training records were looked at to check staff were appropriately trained and supported to deliver care that met people’s individual needs. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service along with a selection of the provider’s policies and procedures, to ensure people received a good quality service.