Updated 13 March 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 team comprised one inspector and one 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 case services for older people.
Service and service type:
• The service is a home care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to adults with a range of care needs.
• Not everyone using the service received regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care, that is 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 a week’s notice of the inspection so the provider could contact people we planned to telephone or visit and make sure they consented to our contacting them.
• Telephone calls with people using the service and their families started on 4 February 2019. We visited the office on 7 Febraury 2019 to see the manager and staff, and to see care records, policies and procedures.
What we did:
Before the inspection we looked at information we held about the service:
• We require providers to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We call this the Provider Information Return (PIR). This information helps support our inspections.
• The law requires providers to notify us of certain events that happen during the running of a service. We reviewed notifications received since the last inspection.
• We reviewed the previous inspection report.
During the inspection:
• We spoke with five people who used the service and five family members by telephone.
• We spoke with the registered manager, the managing director, and two staff members.
• We looked at the care records of three people.
• We looked at four staff records, including training and recruitment records.
• We looked at other records to do with the management of the service.
After the inspection the provider sent us:
• Records relating to staff training and people’s medicines care plans.