Personal Care Specialists

Updated 10 March 2018

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 comprehensive inspection took place on 28 November 2017 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because we needed to make sure someone would be available to support with the inspection. The inspection team consisted of an adult social care inspector and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using this type of care service.

Before the inspection we looked at details we held about the registered provider on our systems and looked at notifications submitted by them about significant issues affecting the people who used the service. This showed us how they had responded to incidents. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

When planning the inspection we contacted the local Healthwatch and local authority safeguarding and quality performance teams to obtain their views about the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer group that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We also sent out questionnaires to people who used the service, their relatives, care staff and professionals in the community. Overall, the feedback from these parties was positive.

During the inspection we made a visit to the registered provider’s office and spoke with the registered manager and staff who were based there. We spoke with two care staff who were visiting to collect their rotas and subsequently spoke with seven other care staff by phone. We visited the homes of two of the people who used the service to ask them about the quality of provision they received. The expert by experience contacted four people who used the service and six of their relatives by phone in order to obtain their views.

We looked at the care files belonging to five people who used the service, staffing records and a selection of documentation relating to the management and running of the service, such as quality audits, minutes of meetings and performance reports.

Updated 10 March 2018

Personal Care Specialists Ltd is a domiciliary care agency and provides personal care to a range of people living in their own houses and flats in the community of north Leeds. It provides a service to older people, including those living with dementia and mental health needs, sensory impairments, physical disabilities and younger adults. The service is managed from its premises in the suburb of Oakwood.

This inspection took place on 28 November 2017 and was announced.

At our last inspection in September 2015 we rated the service as ‘Good’. Since the last inspection the service had grown in size and was delivering personal care to more people than it had been previously. At the time of the inspection the service was providing support to 60 older people.

At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of ‘Good’ and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on-going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. We have changed the rating in the well led domain to ‘Requires Improvement’, because we found improvements were needed to ensure people received their calls in a timelier manner, although the provider had plans to address this issue.

This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

There was a registered manager for the service. 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.

People who used the service were supported by staff who helped protect them from potential abuse. Staff had been safely recruited to ensure they did not pose an identified risk to people. Training had been provided to care staff to ensure they knew how to administer medicines safely. Assessments about potential risks had been completed to ensure staff knew how to keep people safe from harm. The service was actively recruiting additional staff to ensure there were always enough staff available to meet people’s needs in a timely way. People told us they had a largely consistent set of staff for support who did not rush.

People were involved and consulted about decisions and their consent was obtained by staff to ensure their support met their wishes and preferences. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff assisted them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Staff had developed positive relationships with people and treated them with consideration and kindness. Staff encouraged people to maintain a healthy diet and upheld their personal dignity. People told us staff respected their wishes for privacy and supported them to be as independent as possible and reduce risks of potential social isolation. People’s support plans contained evidence of assistance provided to ensure their health and wellbeing was maintained with involvement from medical professionals when this was required. People told us they knew how to raise a complaint.

Systems were in place to ensure the quality of the service could be monitored. Audits and checks were carried out to enable potential trends and patterns to be analysed and positive action to be taken when required to help the service to learn and develop, although we found this had not always occurred in a planned and timely way. The service welcomed people’s feedback and suggestions to help it improve. People told us that management were approachable and worked in partnership with them. Staff told us they enjoyed working for the service and that management were supportive of them.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.