Updated 29 March 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 two inspectors, an assistant inspector and two experts 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. In this instance their areas of expertise were caring and supporting older family members and accessing services.
Service and service type:
Westminster Homecare Limited (Leicester) 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.
Not everyone using the service receives regulated activity; the Care Quality Commission (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 consider any wider social care provided.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to ensure there was someone available to facilitate the inspection. We wrote to 60 people who used the service which we had randomly selected to inform them of the inspection and our intention to contact them for their feedback about their experience of the service.
Inspection site visit activity started on 21 February 2019 and ended on 25 February 2019. We visited the office location on 21 February 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We made telephone calls to people, their families and staff on 21, 22 and 25 February 2019.
What we did:
We reviewed the information we had about the service which included any notifications that had been sent to us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.
We contacted the health and social care commissioners who monitor the care and support the people receive.
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 returned the PIR and we took this into account when we made judgements in this report.
During the inspection, we spoke with 31 people who used the service and five relatives. We also had discussions with 22 members of staff that included 14 care staff, a care co-ordinator, a fieldwork supervisor, an auditor, a risk assessor, a recruitment co-ordinator, a training officer, the registered manager and the provider.
We looked at the care records of three people, we undertook a tour of the office premises and observed information on display around the service such as information about safeguarding, training and how to make a complaint. We also examined records in relation to the management of the service such as staff recruitment files, quality assurance checks, staff training and supervision records, safeguarding information and accidents and incident information.