Updated 4 May 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 completed by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using services. In this instance, they had experience of using and caring for older people who use care at home services.
Service and service type: This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older people and disabled adults. Not everyone using Castle Home care Services limited receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being
received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. For people the provider helps with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating, we also consider any wider social care provided.
The service had a registered manager. 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 one days’ notice of the inspection site visits because some of the people using it could not consent to a home visit or calls from an inspection team and we needed to make these arrangements appropriately.
Inspection site visit activity started on 11 April 2019 and ended on 12 April 2019. We visited the office location on 11 April 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff and to review care records and policies and procedures. Calls to people took place on 12 April 2019.
What we did: The provider had completed a Provider Information Return. 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. The information provided by the provider was used to plan our inspection and was considered when we made judgements in this report.
We looked at other information we had including notifications received from the service and other professionals.
During the inspection we carried out telephone interviews with 12 people, three relatives and four care staff. We spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager and a local authority commissioner.
We reviewed three people's care records and three staff files including recruitment, supervision and training information. We reviewed three medicine administration records and daily notes for people as well as records relating to the management of the service.