Updated 24 February 2023
The inspection
We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.
Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 2 Experts 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.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and specialist housing.
Registered Manager
This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.
At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.
Notice of inspection
This inspection was announced. We gave a short period of notice to ensure we gained consent from people and their relatives to contact them.
Inspection activity started on 27 January 2023 and ended on 7 February 2023.
What we did before inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We also contacted Healthwatch to gather any views they had. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.
We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.
During the inspection
We contacted 40 people and their relatives and spoke with 13 people and 14 relatives. We held 2 virtual meetings with the registered manager. We also contacted the majority of the staff team via email to gather their feedback and contacted 10 staff by phone. We received responses and feedback from 20 staff members.
We contacted 6 care managers/social workers, 2 occupational therapist, community matron and district nurse teams. We received feedback from 5.
We reviewed a range of records. This included a review of 6 people's care plans and medicines records. We checked 4 staff files in relation to recruitment. We also reviewed records related to the management of the service, which included incident reports, quality assurance checks, surveys, minutes of meetings and policies and procedures.
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We further reviewed training data, quality assurance records and policies and procedures.