Background to this inspection
Updated
1 February 2019
The inspection
‘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.’
Inspection team
One inspector and an Expert by Experience conducted the inspection. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The expert by experience undertook telephone calls to 4 people who used the agency and spoke with their relatives.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes and flats in the community. It provides a service to younger and older adults. At the time of our inspection the provider had applied to move the location address of the office.
The service had a registered manager who registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means 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
This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection site visit to ensure the registered manager would be present and to ensure people’s consent was gained for us to contact them for their feedback. We visited the office location on 6 & 14 December 2018 to see the registered manager and to review care records, policies and procedures. We made calls to the staff on 3 January 2019.
What we did
Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service and the service provider. We did not ask the registered provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law.
During the inspection, we spoke with one person using the service and five relatives to ask about their experience of care. We spoke with the registered manager and three members of staff. We looked at the care and medicines records for three people, staff employment related records and records relating to the quality and management of the service. Details are in the Key Questions below.
Updated
1 February 2019
About the service: This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes and flats in the community. It provides a service to younger and older adults.
People’s experience of using this service:
• We found some of the provider's quality assurance systems needed improvement as they did not identify all the shortfalls in records. When we discussed this with the registered manager they assured us they would improve the quality checking systems.
• People received care and support based on their individual assessed needs and preferences. People had a care plan which detailed the risk involved in people’s personal care. People were cared for safely by adequate numbers of staff. Staff were trained to administer medicines; however, some medicine records were not always signed by staff.
• The provider ensured that staff received training based on people’s individual needs. Staff spoke positively about working for the provider. They felt well supported and that they could talk to management at any time. People were supported by staff to maintain a good diet and provided plenty of fluids. Staff worked well to ensure people were supported to access health services and people were involved and encouraged to make decisions about the care offered.
• People were treated with kindness and were positive about the staff’s caring attitude. People were encouraged to express their views and make decisions about the care they received. People told us they felt staff treated them with respect and dignity and encouraged them to maintain their independence for as long as possible.
• People were supported by staff who understood their needs and ensured individual care was provided for people. The provider strived to ensure the consistency in staff support meaning people and staff were able to build positive relationships.
• People’s relatives spoke positively about the registered manager and staff. The registered manager understood their legal responsibility for notifying the Care Quality Commission of incidents that involved the people who received a care service. People and their relatives had been given the opportunity to comment on the service by a telephone poll.
Rating at last inspection: This is the First Rating inspection of this service.
Why we inspected: This was the first planned ‘first rating’ inspection since this service has been registered and started operating.
Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated ‘Good’.