Sodark Care

Updated 13 August 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

The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

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.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period 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 23 July 2019 and ended 31 July 2019. We visited the office location on 23 July 2019.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service and four relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with four members of staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We spoke with one professional who was regularly involved in the service.

Updated 13 August 2019

About the service

Sodark Care is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to 32 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Quality monitoring and management documentation were not always completed to show actions and outcomes, which meant that lessons learnt could not be shared with the staff team.

People had care plans and these covered people’s immediate support needs, however did not capture the person’s goals and details of how they wanted to be supported.

Following on from the inspection this was something that the registered manager started to implement.

We recommend the registered provider seeks further guidance from a reputable source on effective governance and quality assurance systems.

People felt safe with the support being provided to them and felt the staff were kind and compassionate. People knew who to contact if they were unhappy with the support they received and believed that their concerns would be listened to and dealt with.

Staff felt they had the right training for their role and all staff went through pre-employment checks and completed an induction as well as shadowing other staff to get to know people.

Staff felt supported by the registered manager and felt they were available whenever the staff needed guidance.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at

Rating at last inspection

This is the first inspection. There is no previous rating linked to the service.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.