Updated 19 September 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. 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
The 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 homes.
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 we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 6 August 2019 and ended on 6 August 2019. We visited the office location on 6 August 2019.
What we did before the inspection
We used the information we held about the service to plan the inspection. This included checking for any statutory notifications that the provider had sent to us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We used this information to plan our inspection. We also used information the provider sent to us in the Provider Information Return (PIR) to formulate our inspection plan. A PIR is key information we require from providers on an annual basis giving us key information about the service. We also sought feedback from the local Healthwatch and the local authority. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
During the inspection we spoke with four people who used the service. We also spoke with the area manager, the registered manager and five support staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and medicine administration records. We also looked at quality assurance records, as well as two recruitment and training records.
Following the inspection, we received written feedback from a social care professional who had recently worked with the registered manager.