Updated 6 July 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 was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type:
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 adults who require support due to frailty, a physical disability, dementia or sensory loss.
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 24 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 started on 30 April 2019 and ended on 1 May 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 the inspection we reviewed information submitted to us by the provider in the Provider Information Return (PIR). We also reviewed notifications of events the provider is legally obliged to tell us about and we looked at the provider’s website.
We reviewed three people’s care records, medicines administration records, policies and procedures, records of incidents and complaints and other records relating to the quality monitoring of the service, such as audits.
We visited one person in their home to gain their views about the care they received. We arranged two further visits to people, however one person preferred for us not to visit that day and another had gone to hospital.
We spoke with one person’s relative, three members of staff, the registered manager and nominated individual. The nominated individual, similar to the registered manager, has specific legal responsibilities around the running of the service. We asked for feedback about the service from the local authority, however we had not received any feedback at the time of writing the report.