Updated 18 May 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 six adult social care inspectors, two of these visited the service, one visited people in their own homes and three undertook telephone calls to the staff team and people who used the service. We were also supported by an 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.
Service and service type: This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is bought or rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.
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 to ensure the registered manager was available and to ensure all of the information would be available to us. The inspection site visit activity started on 1 May 2019 and ended on 7 May 2019. We visited the office location on 1 and 7 May 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We undertook telephone calls to people who used the service, relatives and staff on 1 May 2019 and visited people in their own homes on 2 May 2019.
What we did: Prior to the inspection we looked at all of the information we held about the service. This included any safeguarding investigations, feedback compliments or complaints and statutory notifications the provider is required to send to us by law. We also checked the information in the provider information return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
To understand the experiences of people using the service we spoke with 29 people and three relatives via telephone calls, as well as eight people who we visited in their home. We also sought feedback from ten professionals. We spoke with fifteen staff members and received feedback from emails sent to staff members, these included care staff, office staff, two branch managers, the quality assurance manager and the registered manager who took overall responsibility for the service. We checked a number of records. These included six care files, five staff files, information relating to safeguarding investigations, complaints and feedback as well as documents relating to the operation and oversight of the service.