Updated 13 May 2022
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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.
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 houses and flats.
Registered Manager
This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.
At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service short 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 30 April 2022 (when we made phone calls to stakeholders) and ended on 3 May 2022. We visited the location’s office on 3 May 2022.
What we did before the inspection
We looked at all the information we held about the provider including information they sent us when they were registered with us.
We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with the relative of one person who used the service and two care workers by telephone. We met the registered manager, nominated individual and quality manager during our visit to the office. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.
We looked at the care records for the person being cared for. We also looked at records relating to people the agency used to care for to clarify how the provider managed certain aspects of their work, such as supporting people with their medicines. We looked at the records for three members of staff. We looked at other records used by the provider for managing the service, these included quality monitoring checks.