Updated 4 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 one inspector 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.
Service and service type:
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. At the time of the inspection there were 38 people receiving the regulated activity of personal care using the service.
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 be sure that they would be in.
Inspection site visit activity started on 28 February 2019 and ended on 1 March 2019. This included telephone calls to people and relatives to gain feedback about the service. We visited the office location on 28 February 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
We used the information we held about the service to formulate our planning tool. This included notifications about any events that had happened at the service, which the provider was required to send us by law.
We spoke with four people who used the service and two relatives to gain their experiences of the service provided. We spoke with four staff, the registered manager, the Head of Home Care North and the quality partner.
We viewed four people’s care records to confirm what people and staff had told us. We also looked at documents relating to the management of the service including rotas, accident reports, monthly audits, and medicine administration records. We also looked at training and induction records for staff employed at the service.