Updated 12 April 2017
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.
This comprehensive inspection took place over two days on 07 and 08 March 2017 and was announced. The first day was spent with the registered manager at the provider’s office and the second day was spent visiting people in their homes. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the service provides a personal care and support service to people living in their own homes and who are often out during the day; we needed to be sure that someone would be in. The inspection team comprised of one inspector.
As part of the inspection process we looked at information we already had about the provider. Providers are required to notify the Care Quality Commission about specific events and incidents that occur including serious injuries to people receiving care and any incidences which put people at risk of harm. We refer to these as notifications. We reviewed the notifications that the provider had sent us, to plan the areas we wanted to focus on during our inspection. We reviewed regular quality reports sent to us by the local authority to see what information they held about the service. These are reports that tell us if the local authority has concerns about the service they purchase on behalf of people.
We spoke with two people, two relatives, the registered manager and three support staff. We looked at records in relation to three people’s care and five medication records to see how their care and treatment was planned and delivered. Other records we looked at included three staff recruitment and training files. This was to check that suitable staff were safely recruited, trained and supported to deliver care to meet people’s individual needs. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service and a selection of the provider’s policies and procedures, to ensure people received a quality service.