Updated 10 August 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
This inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type
Loyal Companion Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
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 72 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 05 July 2019 and ended on 23 July 2019. We visited the office location on 05 July 2019.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included, information sent to us by the provider, the report of the previous inspection and the provider’s action plan. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
Most people were living with dementia and they were not able to tell us about their experiences of being supported by the service. We spoke with two people, relatives of three people, one social care professional, three staff, the registered manager, and the provider's nominated individual (provider).
We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and medicine records. We looked at two staff files to review the provider’s recruitment, training and staff supervision processes. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, audits and surveys.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at further quality assurance records. We requested and received feedback from a local authority professional who worked closely with the service.