Last updated 24 October 2017
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

This comprehensive inspection took place on 19 and 20 September 2017 and was announced. We gave the service short notice of the inspection because it is small and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to make sure that they would be in. One adult social care inspector carried out the inspection on both days.

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. We reviewed the PIR and other information we held about the home. This included statutory notifications sent to us. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

The Care Quality Commission sent out questionnaires prior to the inspection. Three were sent out to people who used the service (two were returned); three were sent out to relatives and friends (one was returned), and three were sent out to community professionals (one was returned).

At the inspection, we spoke with the two directors (one of whom is also the registered manager), deputy manager, assistant manager, four support staff and two relatives. We visited four people in their own homes and spoke with them about their experiences of the service. We contacted a further six support staff and received responses from one of them. We requested feedback from two health and social care professionals and received a response from one of them. This enabled us to ensure we were addressing any potential areas of concern.

We reviewed information about people’s care and how the service was managed. These included three people’s care records and two medicine records; staff files which included recruitment records of the last three staff employed; staff rotas; staff training and supervision records; quality monitoring systems such as audits; complaints and compliments; incidents and accident reporting; minutes of meetings; policies and procedures, and the most recent satisfaction survey sent out to families and staff.

Following the inspection, the provider sent us revised copies of records, policies and procedures and monitoring systems to include more information. These had been updated since the inspection and put in to immediate use.