Prior Care Limited

Updated 3 October 2023

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 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.

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 (CQC) 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 the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 13 September 2023 and ended on 19 September 2023. We visited the location’s office on 13 September 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we already held about the service. This included their last inspection report and notifications. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law. 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.

During the inspection, we spoke with the registered manager. We reviewed documents and records that related to people’s care and the management of the service.

We reviewed 4 staff files, which included pre-employment checks and 5 care plans which included peoples support needs. We looked at other documents such as quality assurance and training records.

We also spoke with 4 people who used the service, 4 relatives of people who used the service and 4 staff members by telephone to get feedback about the service.

Updated 3 October 2023

About the service

Prior Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency and is based in the London Borough of Havering. The service provides personal care to adults in their own homes. 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.

At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting 34 people with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service

We found that robust systems were not in place to ensure staff attended calls on time and stayed the duration of the call. Robust quality assurance systems were not in place to identify shortfalls and take prompt action to ensure people received safe and effective care in a timely manner.

Risks were identified and assessed to ensure people received safe care. Staff were aware of how to safeguard people from abuse. Systems were in place to prevent and minimise the spread of infections when supporting people. Pre-employment checks had been carried out to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people. Medicines were being managed safely.

Staff had been trained to undertake their roles effectively. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People received care from staff who were caring and had a good relationship with them. People’s privacy and dignity was respected. People were encouraged to be independent and to carry out tasks without support.

People received person-centred care. Care plans had been reviewed regularly to ensure they were accurate.

Systems were in place to get feedback from people. Feedback was used to make improvements to the service.

Rating at last inspection

The previous rating for this service was Good (published 12 July 2018).

Why we inspected

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

The overall rating for the service has changed from Good to Requires Improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Prior Care Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.