Updated 1 June 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 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.
Inspection team: This consisted of 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 service.
Service and service type: Browncross Healthcare Limited (Domiciliary Services) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older people and younger disabled adults. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 61 people in the London Boroughs of Bexley, Barking and Dagenham and Camden. Not everyone using Browncross Healthcare Limited (Domiciliary Services) receives a 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 provider five days’ notice because we needed to ensure somebody would be available to assist us with the inspection. This was also due to the Easter bank holiday weekend.
Inspection activity started on 24 April and ended on 10 May 2019. We visited the office location on 24, 25 and 29 April 2019 to see the registered manager, office staff and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as allegations of abuse. We reviewed their provider information return (PIR). 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.
During the inspection we reviewed six people’s care records, five staff recruitment, training and supervision records, samples of staff rotas and call monitoring data, complaints and safeguarding investigations and audits and records related to the management of the service.
We called 26 people and spoke with nine people and three relatives. We also spoke with 12 staff members. This included the registered manager, the director, the quality assurance manager, the care manager, the general manager, a monitoring officer, a senior administrator and five care workers.
After the site visit, we contacted five health and social care professionals who worked with people using the service for their views and spoke with two of them.