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 team was made up of one inspector.

Service and service type:

268 Ashingdon Road is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults including people with palliative care needs, physical disabilities and people living with dementia.

The service had recently recruited a manager who was going through the process of registering with the Care Quality Commission. In the interim the service was being managed by the registered provider who had previously been registered as the manager. The registered manager and provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

This was an announced inspection as this was a small service and we had to be sure someone would be at the office when we visited. Inspection activity started on 24 May 2019 and ended on 3 June 2019. We visited the office location on 24 May 2019.

What we did:

Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must let us know about, such as abuse; and we sought feedback from the local authority and other professionals involved with the service. We assessed the information providers 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 used all this information to plan our inspection.

On 24th May 2019 we visited the office premises and spoke with the registered provider. We looked at four people’s care records including their medication records and daily notes. We looked at four staff files. We reviewed training and supervision records and documents relating to the management of the service including complaints and compliments, minutes of meetings and quality audits. on 3rd June 2019 we phoned four people who used the service to ask for their views. We also interviewed four staff members. We also contacted organisations that commission services from the provider including one local authority and a clinical commissioning group to ask for feedback.

After the inspection we made further requests for information which was provided by the registered provider.