Updated 10 January 2020
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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
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. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 13 December 2019 and ended on 19 December 2019. This included a visit to the office location and telephone calls to people using the service and their relatives.
What we did before the inspection
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We sought feedback from five professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection
During the inspection-
We spoke with four people who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided. We looked at the care records for four people using the service, medicines administration records and audits. We also looked at the staff recruitment and training files for three members of staff and other records used by the provider for managing the service. We met the registered manager and the operations manager. We spoke with another three members of staff.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.