Updated 21 February 2020
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. 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 undertaken 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.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. They were also the nominated individual of the company. This meant they were legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
This inspection was announced.
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or a member of their management team would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection site visit activity started on 20 December 2019 and ended on 17 January 2020 when we gave feedback. It included a visit to the office location on 7 January 2020 to meet with the registered manager and to review care plans and other records.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who worked with 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 their 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 carried out telephone interviews with people on 20 December 2019. We spoke with five people who used the service and one person’s relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with one member of staff and received electronic feedback from one person who used the service, four members of staff and one professional.
We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care and medicines records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.