Updated 11 June 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:
This inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type:
Age UK Stafford and district is a service is a care at home service. It provides personal care to older adult’s living in their own houses and flats. It included those living with dementia or people with a physical impairment.
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 domiciliary care provider and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
Inspection activity started on 29 March 2019 and ended on 8 April 2019. We visited the office location on 1 April and 2 April 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We reviewed the information the provider had sent us along with other information we held about the service. This included notifications about events that had happened at the service, which the provider was required to send us by law. For example, safeguarding concerns, serious injuries and deaths that had occurred at the service. We also contacted the local authority and asked for any information that they held about the service.
During the inspection we spoke to five people who used the service, one relative, two staff members, the registered manager and nominated individual. We looked at three people’s support plans, two staff recruitment files and other information relating to the running of the service including medication records and risk assessments.
After the inspection we received information from the registered manager that we had requested such as staff training information.