Updated 24 April 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.
The inspection was brought forward because we had received concerns that staff were not being safely recruited and were not being sufficiently trained when they were new in post.
Inspection team:
The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.
Service and service type:
Home Instead Senior Care is a domiciliary care agency. The registered manager had left the service approximately two weeks before our inspection visit. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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. A new manager had been appointed. They had not yet commenced the registration process to become the registered manager with the CQC.
Notice of inspection:
The inspection was unannounced, so the provider, manager and staff team did not know we would be visiting. Inspection site visit activity started on 13 March 2019 and ended on 15 March 2019. We visited the office location on 13 March 2019.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service and the service provider. We also looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law.
During the visit to the office location we met with the managing director, the manager, the office manager, a rota scheduler and care coordinator.
We reviewed records that included three care plans, daily activity records and medicines records. We checked five staff recruitment files, staff induction, supervision and training records. We also looked at records relating to the management and monitoring of the service. These included audits and quality assurance surveys.
We spoke on the telephone with three people who used the service, five relatives and eight caregivers, to help form our judgements.
After the inspection we received further information we had requested relating to staff recruitment and the monitoring and management of the service.