Last updated 3 August 2018
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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.

The inspection took place on 14 and 15 June 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours' notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service to people in their own homes and we needed to be sure that someone would be at the office and able to assist us to arrange home visits.

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and two experts by experience, who made telephone calls to people and their relatives. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service. This included notifications the provider had sent us. A notification is the means by which providers tell us important information that affects the running of the service and the care people receive.

We had requested and received 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 reviewed this information during the inspection.

During the inspection we visited four people who used the service and spoke with two relatives. We spoke with nineteen people and two relatives on the telephone. We also spoke with seven members of staff, as well as the registered manager and the regional manager. Following our inspection we spoke to one further staff member. We received feedback from one professional who had knowledge of the service.

We looked at a range of records during the inspection, these included five people’s care records. We looked at information relating to the management of the service including quality assurance audits and meeting minutes. We also looked at three staff files, the recruitment process, the staffing systems, complaints, and staff training and supervision records.