Background to this inspection
Updated
9 August 2016
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 7, 8 and 11 July 2016. We gave 12 hours’ notice to make sure that the manager would be available. The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector. 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 visited the office on 7and 8 July 2016 and looked at records, which included six people’s care records, five staff files and other records relating to the management of the service. We spoke with the registered manager, the office manager, a co-ordinator and five other members of staff. The visit also included home visits on the 8 July 2016 to two people who used the service and their families, and telephone calls to four people and three relatives on the 11 July 2016.
Before our inspection, we looked at information the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had received about the service including notifications received from the registered manager. We checked that we had received these in a timely manner. We also looked at safeguarding referrals, complaints and any other information received from members of the public.
Updated
9 August 2016
We visited Premier Care Ltd - Wirral Branch on the 7 and 8 July 2016 and made telephone calls to people using the service on 11 July 2016. Premier Care Ltd- Wirral Branch provides care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of our visit, the service was providing support for 51 people with domiciliary care services and 66 people on short term reablement from hospital support. There were 25 care and support staff employed with ongoing recruitment.
The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
At this inspection we found a breach relating to the governance of the service. Systems were not in place to effectively monitor the service. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.
We also found concerns relating to the robustness of recruitment procedures and the management of the care records.
There was a safeguarding policy in place and staff were aware of the safeguarding procedure in relation to safeguarding adults and all were aware of the need to inform the manager or office manager immediately.
Staff were recruited correctly using safe checks such as criminal records (DBS). There was an induction programme in place which included training staff to ensure they were competent in the role they were doing in the community. Staff received on-going and regular training to enable them to work safely and effectively.
Staff knew what to do if any difficulties arose whilst supporting somebody, or if an accident happened. Incidents and accidents were recorded and learned from.
The opinions of people who spoke with us were that the service was good. People told us they were happy with the staff and felt that the staff understood their care needs. People confirmed that staff mostly stayed for the length of time allocated, however there were issues with staff arriving on time and with no consistency of staff providing their care. People confirmed that calls were rarely missed and that an on-call system was always available. All of the people we spoke with had no complaints about the service.
The staff employed by Premier Care Ltd - Wirral Branch knew the people they were supporting and the care they needed. People who used the domiciliary service and staff told us that Premier Care Ltd - Wirral Branch was well led and staff told us that they felt well supported in their roles. We saw that the registered manager, office manager and senior staff had a visible presence and it was obvious that they knew the people who they supported really well.