Background to this inspection
Updated
26 April 2019
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.
This was an announced comprehensive inspection, which took place on 20 March 2019 and was undertaken by two 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.
We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection visit because we visited the office location of the service and needed to be sure that they would be available.
Before the inspection, the 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. The provider completed and returned the PIR and we considered this when we made judgements in this report. We also reviewed other information that we held about the service such as notifications, which are events which happened in the service that the provider is required to tell us about, and information that had been sent to us by other agencies.
During our inspection, we spoke to 11 people who used the service, the care co-ordinator, four care support workers, and the registered manager.
We looked at the care records of six people to see whether they reflected the care given and five staff recruitment records. We looked at other information related to the running of and the quality of the service. This included quality assurance audits, training information for care staff, and minutes of meetings with staff and people and arrangements for managing complaints.
Updated
26 April 2019
About the service:
Age Gracefully Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 26 people using the service.
People's experience of using this service:
¿ People felt safe and the service assessed risks to the health and wellbeing of people who use
the service and staff. Where risks were identified action was taken to reduce the risk where
possible.
¿Recruitment processes were in place to make sure, as far as possible, that people were
protected from staff being employed who were not suitable.
¿Medicines were handled safely by staff who had been assessed as competent to do so.
We gave the provider some guidance about how to improve this in the documentation to ensure this was clear in care plans when this was administered or prompted for people by staff.
¿People received effective care from staff who were well trained and supervised.
¿People felt the service they received helped them to maintain their independence where
possible.
¿People said that staff were caring and respected their privacy and dignity.
¿People received care that was designed to meet their individual needs and preferences.
¿People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported
them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this
practice.
¿People knew how to complain and knew the process to follow if they had concerns.
¿People's right to confidentiality was protected and their diversity needs were identified and
incorporated into their care plans where applicable.
¿People did not always receive their calls on time, but the provider had put measures in place to make improvements to this. We saw evidence of their call monitoring system and quality monitoring system for this process.
Rating at last inspection:
The service was inspected on 31/01/2018 and was previously rated as Requires Improvement overall.
Why we inspected:
This was a planned comprehensive inspection in line with our inspection programme.
Follow up:
We will continue to monitor all information we receive about this service. This informs our ongoing
assessment of their risk profile and ensures we are able to schedule the next inspection accordingly.