We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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 two working days’ 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 29 August 2019 when we visited the office and ended on 6 September 2019, when we carried out telephone calls with people’s relatives.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we looked at information we held about the service. This information included any statutory notifications that the provider had sent to the CQC. Statutory notifications include information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also reviewed our registration and assessment information completed during the process of the service registering with us. Other information we reviewed included a recent host local authority quality monitoring report of the service. This information helps support our inspections. We used this information to plan our inspection.

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.

During the inspection-

We spoke with the registered manager and the deputy manager /team coordinator. We reviewed a variety of records which related to people's individual care and the running of the service. These records included care files of the two people using the service, three staff employment records and quality monitoring records.

After the inspection

People who used the service due to their needs were unable to speak with us about their experience of the care provided. Therefore, we spoke with two relatives. We also spoke with the head of care for the service. The provider supplied us with a range of documentation including a person’s updated initial assessment, a risk assessment and an updated safeguarding adults’ policy to validate evidence found.