Apex Prime Care - Christchurch

Updated 31 March 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

The inspection was undertaken 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.

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 a day’s notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 1 March 2022 and ended on 17 March 2022. We visited the location’s office on 1 and 8 March 2022.

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 and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. 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 on the telephone with six people who used the service and six relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with seven members of staff including the registered manager, a care coordinator, the branch trainer and care workers.

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

Updated 31 March 2022

About the service

Apex Prime Care - Christchurch is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people in their own homes. These are predominantly older people. At the time of inspection, the service was providing personal care to 63 people.

Not everyone who uses the service receives 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

People and their relatives said they or their loved one felt safe and comfortable with the staff who visited them, and that care was not rushed. Staff understood their role and responsibility for safeguarding people from abuse. There were recruitment checks to help ensure new staff had the necessary skills and character to provide people’s care.

There were enough staff to provide people’s care and the service had missed no care visits. Everyone we spoke with said they or their loved one had regular care staff. However, there had been a recent turnover of staff in the part of the service covering Bournemouth, meaning people had to get used to new staff.

Medicines were managed safely. People received their medicines in the right dose at the right time. The provider’s medication policy did not address covert medication, which is the concealment of medicines in a person’s food or drink where this is in their best interests. We have made a recommendation regarding the provider updating their medicines policy to address covert medication.

People, relatives and staff voiced confidence in the way the service was run. They felt the management team were approachable and would act on concerns raised.

The registered manager, office team and care staff understood their roles and responsibilities. Staff supervision and observed practice had fallen behind due to the pressures of the pandemic but had recently resumed.

Quality assurance measures were in operation. These included the provider issuing a questionnaire to obtain feedback, and feedback from people and staff in more informal ways. There were also audits of various aspects of the service. Any shortfalls found were addressed.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

Based on our review of safe and well-led, the service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

¿ Right support: Care was planned and delivered in a way that maximised people’s choice, control and independence. The service reported back to commissioners of care where care packages seemed overly intense, which risked robbing people of their independence.

¿ Right care: Care was delivered according to each person’s individual needs and preferences. Although there had been changes in staff in some parts of Bournemouth, staff got to know and understand people. Staff also described how they had regular people to visit. Staff and managers promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights.

¿ Right culture: The ethos of the service and the values, attitudes and behaviours of managers and care staff ensured people were supported as far as possible, within the limits of their care package, to lead confident, included and empowered lives.

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 6 February 2020).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to how the service safeguarded people from abuse. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. 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 remained good based on the findings of this inspection. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Apex Prime Care - Christchurch on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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