Updated 27 July 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. 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.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
Notice of inspection
This inspection was announced. 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 registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 5 July 2019 and ended on 16 July 2019. We visited the office location on 5 July 2019.
What we did before the inspection
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 looked at information we hold about the service such as notifications of events and registration information. We used this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with the registered manager and the nominated individual for the service. We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and related documentation. We looked at records for four members of staff in relation to recruitment, training, supervision and appraisal. We reviewed policies and procedures and other records relating to the management of the service.
After the inspection
We spoke with two members of care staff. We contacted one person using the service as per arrangements, but our calls were not answered. We contacted a relative of a person using the service who asked us to contact another relative. This relative was a member of care staff and due to a possible conflict of interest we did not ask this person for feedback.