Updated 2 April 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. 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.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. In this instance their area of expertise was supporting and caring for an older family member in receipt of personal care.
Service and service type:
Home Instead East Northants is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to younger adults, older people, people living with dementia, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, mental health needs, and learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder.
Not everyone using the service receives a regulated activity; the Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.
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 we needed to ensure there was someone available to facilitate the inspection and to inform the people using the service of the inspection.
Inspection site visit activity started on 6 February 2019 and ended on 7 February 2019. We visited the office location on 6 February to see the provider, meet with caregivers; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We contacted people via telephone on 6 and 7 February 2019 and visited people in their homes on the 7 February 2019.
What we did:
Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. The provider returned the PIR and we took this into account when we made judgements in this report.
We reviewed information we had received about the service. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse; and we sought feedback from the local authority, clinical commissioning group (CCG) and other professionals who work with the service. We used this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection, we spoke with 16 people who used the service and eight relatives. We also had discussions with the provider, the registered manager and 10 members of the staff team. This included five caregivers, a care scheduler, a team leader, a client services manager and two members of the marketing team.
We reviewed seven people's care records to ensure they were reflective of their care needs. We reviewed four caregiver’s recruitment files, and other documents relating to the management of the service such as quality assurance checks, training records, meeting minutes and safeguarding records.