Updated 7 June 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:
One inspector and an Expert by Experience carried out the inspection. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people who used the service and their relatives. 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:
Skillcare Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes, including, older people and people living with dementia. CQC regulates the personal care provided.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission who was also the company director. This means that they 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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
Inspection site visit activity took place on 24 April 2019. We visited the office location on that date to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
Prior to the inspection, we looked at the information we held about the service and used this to help us plan our inspection. This included information the provider must notify us about, such as allegations of abuse. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
During the inspection, we spoke with the registered manager, care co-ordinator, administrator, field care supervisor and two care staff. We received feedback from six people who used the service and eight relatives.
We reviewed a range records which included four people’s care files, four staff files, staff rotas, complaints records and quality assurance documents.