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 visit was carried out by one inspector. As part of the inspection, we contacted people who used the service and their relatives by telephone. These telephone calls were made by 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.

Service and service type: This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

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

We visited the office location on 14 May 2019 to see the office manager and to review care records and policies and procedures. The expert by experience made telephone calls to people using the service and their relatives on the same day.

What we did:

Before the inspection we looked at all the information we held about the provider. This included the last inspection report, the provider's action plan and information we had received about the service since this time. We also looked at the provider's own website and other public information about the provider.

During the inspection visit we met the office manager. We spoke with two people who used the service and the relatives of three other people. We looked at the care records for four people who used the service, the staff recruitment, training and support records for all the members of staff, records of complaints, incidents, accidents and quality monitoring.