Apex Prime Care - Dorchester

Updated 5 October 2023

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by an 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

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Some people receiving care and support from the service live in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is bought or rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care service.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 28 June 2023 and ended on 6 September 2023. We visited the service on 28 June, 5 July, 19 July and 21 July 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke on the telephone with 15 people who used the service and 7 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 8 members of staff including the registered manager, a member of office staff and care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 6 people's care records, 3 of these people’s medication records and 2 further people's medication records. We looked at 4 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We also reviewed a variety of documentation relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, accident and incident records, safeguarding records and quality assurance reports.

Updated 5 October 2023

About the service

Apex Prime Care - Dorchester provides care and support to people in their own homes in and around Blandford Forum, Dorchester, Weymouth and Portland in Dorset. Some of these people live in one of 3 extra care housing complexes in Dorchester, Weymouth and Portland. These are blocks of housing association flats where Apex Prime Care – Dorchester are based on site.

At the time of the inspection, Apex Prime Care – Dorchester was providing personal care to 83 people. Of these people, 38 lived in the extra care housing.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support:

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The registered manager and staff understood their responsibilities to recognise and report potential abuse.

Right Care:

People and their relatives told us they felt at ease with the care staff. People tended to have regular staff providing care, although depending on where they lived some people experienced more new staff.

People and relatives told us the service was organised in a way that respected their wishes and ensured their care needs were met. People had care plan review meetings at least annually with a senior member of staff, where they, and where appropriate their relative, reviewed and discussed how their care should be provided.

Risks to people and the staff supporting them were managed in a way that respected people’s preferences, whilst supporting them to remain safe. Medicines were managed safely so people received their medicines as prescribed.

Right Culture:

There were enough staff to provide people’s care. The registered manager was careful not to take on new care packages unless there were staff available to cover these. People and relatives told us staff stayed for the allotted time unless everything had been completed and they were happy for the staff to leave. The provider operated recruitment checks before new staff started providing care, to help ensure staff were suitable for care work.

People and relatives had confidence in the ability of care staff. Staff had training in key topics at induction, with regular updates following this. Some staff told us they would value face-to-face training. The registered manager confirmed this could be provided at neighbouring Apex Prime Care locations and that the opportunity would once again be offered to staff.

The registered manager and staff worked in partnership with health and social care professionals to help ensure good outcomes for people.

People and relatives said they felt able to contact the office if they had queries or concerns.

Staff told us they felt well supported. There were regular audits and checks on the quality of service provided. The registered manager had recognised that staff spot checks and supervision meetings were out of date, and was in the process of addressing this.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 25 May 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation regarding staff awareness in relation to safeguarding children.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.