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.

Our inspection of 25 Cheriton Queens Crescent took place on 2 September 2019.

Inspection team:

The inspection was carried out by a single inspector.

Service and service type:

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides support to adults living in their own homes in the community. At the time of inspection six people were using the service, one of these people for only a week. Another person had been referred and their assessment was about to commence although they were not yet using the service.

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 a small service. We needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service, for example, statutory notifications. A notification is information about events which the provider is required to tell us about by law.

During the inspection we spoke with the provider and registered manager. We made contact by e mail with relatives of the six people using the service and received a reply from four relatives. We also made contact by e mail with four care staff working for the agency but unfortunately did not receive any replies. We looked at a range of records. This included five people’s care records, staff recruitment and records relating to the management of the service such as monitoring records.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at staff supervision, training data and access to information policy.