Updated 20 February 2019
The inspection:
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.
Inspection team:
The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.
Service and service type:
Eastlea care plus is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Everyone using Eastlea care plus received the regulated activity; the Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, four people were receiving personal care.
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 small service 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 started on 4 February and ended on the 7 February 20199. We visited the office location on the 4 February to see the manager and office staff and to review care records and policies and procedures. We also visited people in their own homes. We made calls to people, their relatives and staff on the 7 February 2019.
What we did:
We reviewed information we had received about the service, this included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse; and we sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We contacted the local authority safeguarding and commissioning teams to gather information about the service. They raised no concerns about the care and support people received from Eastlea care plus. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
Due to technical problems, the provider was not able to complete a Provider Information Return. 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.
During our inspection we spoke with four members of staff including the registered manager, three people using the service, and two relatives.
We reviewed a range of records. This included three people's care records, three staff files around staff recruitment and supervision and the training records for all staff. We also reviewed records relating to the management of the service and a variety of policies and procedures developed and implemented by the provider.