Updated 3 April 2019
The inspection:
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an inspection manager.
Service and service type:
Action for Children Herts Domiciliary is a domiciliary (home care) care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. Action for Children Herts Domiciliary provides care and support to children and younger adults.
The service had a manager who was not registered with the Care Quality Commission. The the provider is 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 site visit because we needed to make sure that the manager would be available.
We visited the office location and spoke with the manager on 15 February 2019. On 19 February 2019 we had a meeting with the manager and the provider`s representative to discuss their plans for developing the service and give feedback on initial findings of the inspection.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed information, we held about the service including statutory notifications. Statutory notifications include information about important events which the provider is required to send us. We received feedback from the local authority and reviewed the commissioner’s report of their most recent inspection.
We requested the provider information return (PIR) to be submitted to us in August 2018. This is information that the provider is required to send to us, which gives us some key information about the service and tells us what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make. However, this information had not been sent to us.
Following the inspection, we spoke with two staff members.
We looked at a care plan for the person who received support and reviewed other records relating to the management of the service like policies and procedures, staff`s training and recruitment records.