Updated 15 February 2019
The inspection:
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 was undertaken by one inspector.
Service and service type:
Blue River is a domiciliary care service providing a regulated activity of personal care to people in their own homes.
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 registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff. We needed to be sure that they would be available to support the inspection.
What we did:
Inspection site visit activity started on 5 February 2019 and ended on 7 February 2019. We visited the office location on 5 February 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. On 6 and 7 February, we contacted people, relatives, staff and professionals to seek feedback about their experience of the service.
Before the inspection we reviewed all the information we hold about the service, which included the provider information return (PIR). This is a form that the provider is required to complete which tells us about what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make in the future.
During the inspection we spoke to the registered manager (who is also the provider) and office staff, including the quality assurance manager. We spoke with one person who used the service; four relatives, four care staff and received feedback from three professionals. We looked at policies and procedures, staff recruitment records, care plans and staff training records. We reviewed other records relating to the overall monitoring of the service.