Updated 9 April 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:
This inspection was carried out by one inspector, one assistant inspector and 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. On this occasion, their area of expertise was people who have a sensory or physical impairment.
Service and service type:
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living 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 we wanted to ask for people’s permission to contact them during the inspection.
Inspection site visit activity started on 31 January and ended on 18 February. We visited the office location on 31 January 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We requested copies of further documentation and care records following the office visit.
What we did:
Before the inspection, due to technical difficulties, we did not ask the registered manager to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. However during the inspection we ensured the registered manager was able to show us all relevant documents and the plans they had in place.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. We also contacted health and social care commissioners who place and monitor the care of people using care services, the local authority safeguarding team and Healthwatch England, the national consumer champion in health and social care to identify if they had any information which may support our inspection.
During our inspection, we spoke with four people who used the service and eight relatives. We also spoke with four members of care staff, two care co-ordinators and the registered manager.
We reviewed the care records for ten people and three staff files. We also looked at other information related to the running of and the quality of the service. This included quality assurance audits, training information, staffing rotas, and arrangements for managing complaints.
After the initial feedback, the registered manager voluntarily sent us an action plan to make immediate improvements to the delivery of care.