Archived: Grace Homecare

Updated 19 November 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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.

The inspection took place on 16 September 2015 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in the office, as sometimes managers are out supporting staff or visiting people who use the service.

Prior to inspection we reviewed all the information held about the service. The provider had not been asked to provide a provider information return (PIR). This is a document that provides relevant up to date information about the agency that is provided by the manager or owner of the agency to the Care Quality Commission. The service provided personal care to 32 people at the time of the inspection.

Our inspection team consisted of two adult social care inspectors and 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. Their area of expertise was in supporting people to use domiciliary care agencies. We visited the provider’s office and spoke to senior staff involved in the management of the service. We looked at the care records of four people, reviewed the records of four staff and records relating to the management of the service. We spoke with the registered provider by phone after our visit. We also spoke with three staff, ten people who used the service and one person’s relative.

Updated 19 November 2015

We carried out an announced inspection of Grace Homecare on 16 September 2015. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of our visit to make sure the manager or their representative would be available.

Grace Homecare provides personal care services to people in their own homes, with 33 people using the service at the time of our inspection. This was the first time that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had inspected the service.

The registered provider was also the manager of the service. Registered managers have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was unavailable on the day of the inspection, however we spoke with them after our visit.

Recruitment practices were robust and the registered provider undertook spot checks and asked people for feedback so that they could monitor the safety and effectiveness of the service. People told us that they felt safe receiving care from Grace Homecare and that their privacy and dignity were well respected.

Staff were knowledgeable and received regular training after their induction. They told us that they understood people’s care needs because they were well documented and the registered provider ensured that they were alerted to any changes in these needs.

People told us that they were well supported with food and drink and that staff knew their likes and dislikes. Staff demonstrated good knowledge of how to promote healthy choices.

The registered manager and senior staff demonstrated that they had knowledge of the performance of the service but had not developed sufficiently robust quality assurance systems which enabled them to evidence this in their records. The registered manager told us that they had started work to improve this immediately after our visit.