Updated 19 May 2020
The inspection:
We carried out our inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. Our inspection checked whether the provider was 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:
Our inspection was completed by one inspector and two Experts-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. Our Expert-by-Experience had knowledge about personal care of adults within the community.
Service and service type:
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to younger and older adults and people living with dementia.
The 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. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. At the time of our inspection, a manager was registered with us. The manager was also the registered provider of the service.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 5 days’ notice of the inspection site visit because we needed to be sure that people and staff would be available to speak with us.
The Inspection site visit activity started on 6 March 2020 and ended on 13 March 2020. We visited the office location on 13 March 2020 to see the managers and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We also checked for feedback from the public, local authorities and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).
We asked the service to complete a Provider Information Return. 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.
We spoke with twelve people who used the service and 6 relatives. We spoke with the both managers( who also are the providers of the service) a care coordinator and four care workers.
We reviewed four care records, four staff recruitment files, and audits. We also checked many records related to how the service was run. These included quality systems, training information, staff records, and satisfaction surveys and feedback.
We received email feedback from three professionals who work with people who use the service.