Updated 13 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:
The inspection team included one inspector 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.
Service and service type:
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone using the service receives regulated activity; 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 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 4 days’ notice of the inspection site visits. This was to ensure people could agree to being contacted by an inspector. Some of the people using the service could not consent to a home visit from an inspector, which meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this.’
Inspection site visit activity started on 13 May 2019 when we contacted people and staff by telephone. We visited the office location on 14 and 16 May 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We visited people in their homes on 16 May 2019.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed the information, we held about the service and the service provider. The registered provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law.
During the inspection we spoke with nine staff, this included the registered manager, a senior manager from the provider and care staff. We spoke with five people and nine family members by telephone to gather their views about the support received. We visited three people in their own homes. This helped us to observe interactions between people and staff and talk with people about the support they receive.
During the office site visit we looked at records, which included six people's care and medicines records. This included ‘pathway tracking’ two people using the service. This is when we check that the care detailed in individual plans matches the experience of the person receiving care. It is an important part of our inspection, as it allows us to capture information about a sample of people receiving care. We checked training records and looked at a range of records about how the service was managed.