Updated 20 March 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.
Inspection team:
One inspector carried out the inspection supported by an expert by experience who made telephone calls to people who use the service. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type:
Homecare4U Limited is a domiciliary care agency. People receive a personal care service in their own home. CQC regulates only the care provided.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission but they had recently left the post. The provider had taken steps to review the whole service and had a new manager in post. They were in the process of applying for registration. This means that at this inspection the provider was legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
Inspection site visit activity was announced and started on 19 February 2019 and ended on this date. We gave short notice of the inspection because we wanted to be sure the management was in the office.
What we did:
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to conduct our inspection.
During the inspection, we spoke with six people who used the service and one relative to ask about their experience of the care provided.
We spoke with five members of staff including the area manager, acting manager and care staff.
We reviewed a range of records. This included five people's care records. We looked at records relating to the general management of the agency.