Apex Prime Care - North West Surrey

Updated 23 July 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service, their relatives and staff.

Inspection team

One inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own flats in an extra care housing scheme.

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

We gave a short notice period of the inspection because we needed to ask the registered manager to send us information and to obtain people’s consent to receive a telephone call from us.

Inspection activity started on 14 July 2022 and ended on 20 July 2022.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since its registration, including notifications of significant events. 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 of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager via Microsoft Teams about how the service was run.

We spoke with six people who used the service and three relatives to hear their feedback about the care the agency provided. We received feedback from four professionals who had worked with the service and from 10 staff about the training, support and information they received.

We reviewed information sent to us by the registered manager, including care plans and risk assessments for four people, recruitment records for three staff, training records, accident and incident records, quality audits, the summary of the most recent quality survey, meeting minutes, and the agency’s business continuity plan.

Updated 23 July 2022

About the service

Apex Prime Care North West Surrey provides personal care and support to people living in Mitchison Court, an extra care housing scheme comprising 39 one and two-bedroom flats. Mitchison Court has a communal lounge, restaurant, laundry facilities and gardens.

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.

The service was supporting 23 people at the time of our inspection, 15 of whom received personal care.

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

Staff were kind and caring and knew people’s needs well. People got on well with the staff who supported them and looked forward to their visits. Staff respected people’s decisions and choices about their care. People’s views about their care were listened to and acted upon. People knew how to complain and felt able to raise concerns if they were dissatisfied. 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.

Measures had been put in place to manage any risks involved in people’s care. Staff attended safeguarding training and had taken appropriate action if they suspected people were at risk of abuse. The provider carried out pre-employment checks to ensure staff were suitable for the work they did. People were protected from the risk of infection because staff followed good practice in infection prevention and control (IPC). Staff managed people’s medicines safely. Staff had the training and support they needed to carry out their roles and to provide people’s care in a safe way.

People’s needs were assessed before the agency provided their care. Personalised care plans were developed from these assessments, which contained guidance for staff about how people’s care should be provided. Staff monitored people’s health and took appropriate action if people became unwell. People were supported to eat meals of their choice and to maintain adequate nutrition and hydration.

The registered manager and the management team provided good leadership by example in their attitudes and behaviours. Staff communicated effectively with one another and worked well as a team to ensure people received the care they needed. The agency’s quality monitoring systems helped the management team maintain an effective oversight of the service and to ensure people received safe, consistent care. The management team worked well with other professionals involved in people’s care and support.

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

Rating at last inspection

The registered provider of this service has changed since the last inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 3 January 2020. The service was registered under the current provider on 13 May 2021.

Why we inspected

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

Follow up

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