Updated 20 January 2015
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.
We inspected Comfort Call (Durham) on 15 July 2014 and the inspection was unannounced. Our last inspection took place in January 2014 and we found the service was meeting all essential standards. Comfort Call (Durham) is a domiciliary care agency that is registered to provide care and support for everyday tasks and personal care. At the time of our inspection the agency had approximately 350 people using their service.
Our inspection team consisted of two Adult Social Care inspectors and one expert by experience who spoke with people who used the service. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Before our inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service including notifications and safeguarding concerns. We were not aware of any concerns from the local authority, local Healthwatch or commissioners. We asked the provider to complete a pre-inspection provider information return and used this to inform some of our planning.
During the inspection we spoke with 40 people who used the service, five relatives of people who used the service and five staff who cared for and supported people.
This report was written during the testing phase of our new approach to regulating adult social care services. After this testing phase, inspection of consent to care and treatment, restraint, and practice under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) was moved from the key question ‘Is the service safe?’ to ‘Is the service effective?’
The ratings for this location were awarded in October 2014. They can be directly compared with any other service we have rated since then, including in relation to consent, restraint, and the MCA under the ‘Effective’ section. Our written findings in relation to these topics, however, can be read in the ‘Is the service safe’ sections of this report.