Updated 10 August 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 was planned to check 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 inspection took place on 5 and 10 July 2017 and was unannounced. The inspection team consisted of one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We considered this information as part of our inspection. We also checked the information that we held about the service such as previous inspection reports and statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also contacted commissioners (who fund the care for some people) of the service and asked them for their views.
During the visit we spoke with eight people who used the service, three relatives, two care workers, a senior care worker, the cook, the activities co-ordinator, the registered manager and the regional director. We looked at the care records of three people who used the service, the recruitment records for three staff, as well as a range of records relating to the running of the service including quality assurance audits and meeting minutes.
We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.