Updated 13 November 2018
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:
One inspector and an Expert by Experience conducted the inspection. 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 houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to younger and older adults.
The service had a registered manager who registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means 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:
This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection site visit to ensure the registered manager would be present and to ensure people’s consent was gained for us to contact them for their feedback. We visited the office location on 16 October 2018 to see the registered manager and to review care records, policies and procedures.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service and the service provider. We did not ask the registered provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law.
During the inspection, we spoke with one person using the service and three relatives to ask about their experience of care. We spoke with two members of staff, the registered manager and the director. We also spoke with an external health care professional. Everyone we spoke to described the service positively and had no concerns.
We looked at the care and medicines records for two people, staff employment related records and records relating to the quality and management of the service. Details are in the Key Questions below.
The report includes evidence and information gathered by the Expert by Experience and from one external health care professional.