Updated 22 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: The inspection team consisted of one adult social care 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, in this case, caring for people who have a learning disability.
Service and service type: The service is a domiciliary care agency. They are registered to provide personal care to up to 14 people with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder. At the time of this inspection they were providing care for 12 people.
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 was conducted on 13 March 2019. We visited the office location to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did: Before our inspection we looked at information we held about the service. The provider had completed a Provider Information Return form (PIR). A PIR is a form we ask providers to submit annually detailing what the service does well and what improvements they plan to make. We reviewed information stored on our database, such as notifications that the registered manager is required, by law, to submit to us as and when incidents may have occurred. We also spoke to the local authority and commissioning team to gain feedback about the service. The information gathered was utilised to plan the inspection.
During the inspection we spoke with four people who use the service, six relatives of people who use the service and five members of staff, including the registered manager. We reviewed three people’s support plans, records relating to safeguarding, accidents and incidents, staff recruitment, quality assurance, minutes of meetings and service user diaries.