Updated 24 February 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 Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
This inspection was carried out by one inspector and one Expert by Experience who made telephone calls to people and relatives of people using the service. 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
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
At the time of the inspection the manager had submitted an application and was in the process of registering with the Care Quality Commission. Registered managers 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 manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 2 December 2022 and ended on 16 December 2022. We visited the office location on 10 December 2022.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service and formal notifications that the service had sent to the CQC. Notifications are information that registered persons are required to tell us about by law that may affect people's health and wellbeing. 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 used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with the manager. We reviewed a range of records including four people's care records and three people's medicines records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision.
After the inspection
We spoke to one person who used the service and seven relatives about their experience of the care provided. We further spoke with five members of staff including the manager and reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including training data, quality assurance records and policies and procedures. We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.