Kcare

Updated 4 December 2018

The inspection:

• We carried out our inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. Our inspection checked whether the provider was 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:

• Our inspection was completed by three 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. Our expert-by-experience had knowledge about personal care of adults within the community.

Service and service type:

• The service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. At the time of our inspection, a manager was registered with us.

• Our inspection process commenced on 9 November and concluded on 17 November 2018. It included pre-inspection questionnaires to people, visiting the service’s office and telephoning people who used the service and their relatives. We visited the office location on 17 November 2018 to see the registered manager and office staff, and to review care records and policies and procedures. We telephoned two people and two relatives on 16 November 2018.

Notice of inspection:

• Our inspection was announced.

• We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small agency and the registered manager was often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

• Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We also checked for feedback we received from members of the public, local authorities and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). We checked records held by Companies House and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

• We ask the service to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

• We telephoned two people and two relatives on 16 November 2018 to gather their feedback.

• We spoke with the registered manager, a branch manager of the provider, two senior care coordinators and two care workers. We also spoke with an external quality assurance and service improvement consultant.

• We reviewed parts of seven people’s care records, three personnel files, two medicines administration records and other records about the management of the service.

• After our inspection, we asked the registered manager to send us further documents and we received and reviewed this information. This evidence was included as part of our inspection.

Updated 4 December 2018

What life was like for people using this service:

• People and relatives told us the service was caring, well-led and respected their needs and preferences.

• People received safe, compassionate and good quality care.

• Staff were knowledgeable and experienced. They received appropriate training and support to ensure they could carry out their roles effectively.

• People’s care was personalised to their individual needs.

• The service had good processes in place to measure, document, improve and evaluate the quality of care.

• The service met the characteristics for a rating of “good” in all key questions.

• More information about our inspection findings is in the full report.

Rating at last inspection:

• This is our first inspection of the service since their registration with us.

About the service:

• Kcare is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to younger and older adults, people with physical disabilities, sensory impairments, learning disabilities or dementia.

• The provider has three domiciliary care agencies within their registration.

• The service’s office is based in Slough, and personal care is provided to people in surrounding areas.

• At the time of our inspection, 20 people used the service and there were 15 staff employed.

Why we inspected:

• This inspection was part of our routine scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, high quality care. Further inspections will be planned for future dates.