Updated 21 May 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
• The inspection was carried out by an inspector, an assistant 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.
Service and service type
• Kare Plus Norwich is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older people and younger adults. Some people who use the service may be living with dementia, have a learning disability, a mental health need, a sensory impairment or a physical disability.
• At the time of our inspection, 56 people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care.
• 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 two working days’ notice of the inspection site visit to ensure staff would be available.
• The inspection started 24 April 2019 and ended on 26 April 2019. We visited the office location on 24 April 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did
• Prior to our inspection we reviewed and analysed the information we held about this service. This included reviewing statutory notifications the service had sent us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.
• We viewed the information sent to us by stakeholders including health professionals and commissioning bodies such as the local authority and continuing healthcare.
• Feedback was also requested from the local authority quality assurance team and social and healthcare professionals who had had recent contact with the service.
• A Provider Information Return (PIR) is key information providers can send us on their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make. A PIR was not received for this service as we had not requested one prior to our inspection.
• We spoke with four people who used the service and nine relatives.
• We spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager, the care coordinator, one field care supervisor and two home care workers.
• We reviewed the medicines administration record (MAR) charts for two people. We also reviewed the care planning documents for seven people who used the service. Documents associated with the management of the service were also viewed.
• After our inspection, we gave the provider 48 hours to submit any further documents to demonstrate that they were meeting the fundamental standards. Extra information was submitted within the time frame and has been used as evidence for this inspection.