Updated 6 August 2019
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.
Inspection team:
The inspection team consisted of one inspector.
Service and service type:
Forest Care is a home care service. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 22 younger and older people with their personal care.
People’s care was a mixture of privately and local authority funded.
Some people lived in their own homes. Other people lived in care homes and purchased additional care from the provider privately. The provider also cared for people who received live in care services.
Not everyone using the service received regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care, which is help with tasks including personal hygiene and maintaining adequate nutrition.
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 the service two days’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the registered 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 9 and 21 May 2019 to see the registered manager and to review care records and policies and procedures.
On 10, 15, 16 and 20 May 2019, we spoke with 9 people or relatives via telephone to gain their views on the quality of care they received. We also received email feedback about the provider from one person.
What we did:
Before the inspection the provider sent us a Provider Information Return. Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.
We reviewed information we held about the service, for example, statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law.
During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, the clinical operations manager and two members of staff. We also reviewed three people's care plans, three staff recruitment files, staff supervision and training records, audits, the provider's incident log, records of complaints and compliments and the provider’s business continuity plan.