Updated 9 May 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 was conducted by one inspector.
Service and service type:
Prospect House Community Care Office is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. Not everyone who used the service received 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.
The service was not required to have a manager registered with CQC, because the service is managed directly by the provider. This means that they 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 the manager is sometimes out of the office providing care and supporting staff. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
Inspection site visit activity took place on 4 April 2019 and ended on 9 April 2019. It included home visits to two people who used the service. We visited the office location to see the provider, office staff and care staff, and to review care records, policies and procedures. We made telephone calls to people and additional care staff on 8 April 2019.
What we did:
Before our inspection, we looked at information we held about the service. The provider sent us 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 reviewed the information we held about the service, such as notifications we had received from the provider. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We sought feedback from the local authority contract monitoring team and safeguarding team prior to our visit. We used this information to plan the inspection.
During the inspection, we spoke with six people who used the service and one relative. We spoke with the provider, deputy manager and three care staff. We looked at a range of documents and records related to people's care and the management of the service. We viewed three people's care records in full and elements of other people’s care documentation. We looked at medication records, three staff recruitment, induction and training files and a selection of records used to monitor the quality and safety of the service. We visited two people in their own homes to get feedback on the service, observe the care provided and look at the documentation available to staff in people's homes.