Your Life (Stratford-upon-Avon)

Updated 25 July 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.

Service and service type

Your Life (Stratford-upon-Avon) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults.

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. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 8 July 2019 and ended on 17 July 2019. We visited the office location on 10 July 2019.

What we did

Before the inspection we looked at notifications we had received about the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

The registered manager was not available during the inspection as they were on annual leave. However, they had made arrangements for senior staff to be available. During our inspection we spoke with one person who used the service, one relative, the operations manager and two duty managers.

We reviewed two people’s care files and looked at their care plans and risk assessments. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We spoke with a relative by telephone. We took their feedback into account when we made our judgement about this service.

Updated 25 July 2019

About the service:

Your Life (Stratford-upon-Avon) is a domiciliary care agency that was providing personal care to two older adults living in their own homes at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they felt safe and described the staff as being honest and trustworthy. Staff had knowledge and training around safeguarding and understood their responsibilities to keep people safe. Procedures were in place to reduce the risk of infection. Staff had the training and knowledge to effectively meet people’s healthcare needs.

People were treated with dignity and respect and were encouraged to maintain their independence. Staff showed warm and caring attitudes to the people they supported. People were supported to access appropriate healthcare professionals and services to ensure care remained responsive to their individual needs. Processes were in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service.

Records showed us staff had been recruited safely, including criminal record checks to ensure they were suitable to work with vulnerable adults. Staffing levels met people’s care needs and individual choices and had the flexibility to be responsive when needs changed. Staff were trained in medicines management and knew how to ensure that people received their medicines on time and as they had been prescribed.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Rating at last inspection: This service was registered with us on 10 July 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.