Prime Life Limited - 32 South Street

Updated 27 July 2022

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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

32 South Street is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. 32 South Street is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

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

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority quality monitoring team who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us 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 plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service and three members of staff including the registered manager and two care staff. We looked at the care records for five people who used the service and the medicines records for two people. We also reviewed maintenance and governance records which related to the day to day running and oversight of the service.

We continued to seek clarification regarding our findings following the inspection site visit. We spoke with a further two people who used the service and two further member of care staff. We also reviewed the recruitment files for two members of staff.

Updated 27 July 2022

About the service

32 South Street is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 20 people. The service provides support to people who are primarily living with mental health support needs. At the time of our inspection there were 19 people using the service. Two of these people were in hospital at the time of the inspection. The service is an adapted building set across three floors with lift access. There are several communal areas, including gardens.

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

The provider lacked robust oversight of the service. They had not undertaken an audit of the service for over a year. We have made a recommendation in relation to this.

The medicines audit did not comprehensively assess medicines, however, a new one was due to be implemented. All other governance systems were effective in identifying shortfalls, and remedial action was taken.

The service had recently been redecorated, however, some of the floors in the bathrooms required replacing.

Risks in relation to people’s individual health and wellbeing needs had been planned for, mitigated and regularly reviewed. Staff understood how to safeguard people from abuse and reported any concerns to the relevant authorities.

Environmental risks had been assessed and planned for. This included regular servicing of utilities and firefighting equipment.

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.

There were enough staff deployed to support people with their care and social needs. Safe recruitment practices ensured suitable staff were recruited.

People received their medicines as the prescriber intended and staff had been assessed as competent to administer medicines. Risk assessments had been completed where people managed their own medicines.

Accidents and incidents were reviewed regularly to look for themes and trends. Learning from untoward incidents was shared with staff.

There was a person-centred culture at the service and people using the service and staff were involved in making decisions about the service, and asked for their feedback. People felt the registered manager was approachable, and staff felt supported in their work.

Staff worked with other agencies and healthcare professionals to ensure continuity of care for people.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 9 May 2019).

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has not changed.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Prime Life Limited- 32 South Street on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendations

We made a recommendation for the provider to undertake regular audits of the service, so they have an oversight of the safety and quality of the service being delivered.

Follow up

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