Updated 31 May 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by one inspector, an assistant inspector and an expert 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. The expert’s area of expertise was older people and dementia.
Service and service type:
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. The registered manager was also the registered provider.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
We visited the office location on 21 February 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. The second day of inspection was used to contact people who use the service and their relatives.
What we did:
When planning our inspection, we looked at the information we held about the service. This included the Provider Information Return (PIR), notifications received from the provider about deaths, safeguarding alerts and serious injuries, which they are required to send us by law. A PIR is information we require providers to send us to give key information about the service, what the service does well and what improvements they plan to make. We also contacted the local authority and commissioners of people’s care to gain feedback. They did not report any concerns, this helped us to plan our inspection.
During the inspection, we spoke with the registered manager, one office staff member and three care staff. We also spoke with two people who used the service and five relatives. We looked at four people’s care records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We also looked at medicine records, staff recruitment and training files, policies and procedures and the provider’s quality monitoring systems.