Updated 21 May 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 was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type: This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older and younger adults. At the time of our inspection of 16 and 18 April 2019, there were 37 people using the service.
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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that someone would be available to provide the information we needed for our inspection.
What we did: Prior to the inspection we reviewed any notifications we had received from the service. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to tell us about by law.
We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR). This information we ask providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed any information about the service that we had received from members of the public and external agencies.
Inspection site visit activity started on 16 April 2019 and ended on 18 April 2019. On 16 April 2019 we visited the office location. We spoke with the registered manager, one quality assurance officer (who also undertakes care visits) and one care worker.
We looked at records relating to six people’s care including care plans, risk assessments and medicines records, three new staff recruitment records, and staff training records. We also looked at audits and systems in place to check on the quality of service provided.
On 18 April 2019 we spoke with six people who used the service and four people’s relatives on the telephone. Following our inspection visit, we also received electronic feedback from two care workers.