Archived: Gloucestershire Link Homecare

Updated 17 September 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is 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.

We undertook a focused inspection of Gloucestershire Link Homecare on 13 August 2015. This inspection was completed to check that improvements to meet legal requirements planned by the provider after our comprehensive inspection on 23 March 2015 had been made. We inspected the service against one of the five questions we ask about services: is the service effective? This is because the service was not meeting legal requirements in relation to that question. The inspection was undertaken by one inspector and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to make sure they would be there.

Before our inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included the provider’s action plan, which set out the action they would take to meet legal requirements and examples of the new records they planned to use.

During the visit we spoke with the registered manager and reviewed the care records for three people who use the service. We looked at mental capacity assessments and records to evidence any meetings held in people’s best interests.

Updated 17 September 2015

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 23 March 2015 at which a breach of legal requirements was found. This was because the registered person did not have suitable arrangements for establishing and acting in accordance with the best interests of the person using the service.

After the comprehensive inspection, the provider wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to the breach. We undertook a focused inspection on 13 August 2015 to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements.

This report only covers our findings in relation to this topic. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for ‘Gloucestershire Link Homecare’ on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Gloucestershire Link Homecare had a registered manager. 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 our focused inspection on 23 August 2015 we found the provider had followed the action plan which they had told us would be completed by 30 June 2015 and legal requirements had been met. People’s capacity to make decisions about their care and support was being assessed whether they were able to make certain decisions, at a certain time. When people are assessed as not having the capacity to make a decision, a best interest decision is made involving people who know the person well and other professionals, where relevant. There was evidence this process was being followed.