Premier Care Services

Updated 31 July 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

This comprehensive inspection was carried out over two days by one 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. The expert at this inspection had experience of caring for older people.

Service and service type:

Premier Care Limited is a domiciliary care service, which provides personal care and support services for a range of 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:

This was an announced inspection. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that staff and people would be available to talk to us.

What we did:

Before inspection:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since their last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection:

We spoke with eight people who used the service and nine relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including the, registered manager who was also the provider, operations manager, care coordinator, office coordinator and care workers. We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff training. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection:

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We sought feedback from three health and social care professionals.

Updated 31 July 2019

About the service:

Premier Care provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. It provides support to older people including those with physical disabilities and sensory impairments. At the time of the inspection 68 people were receiving personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

Without exception, people and their relatives were very positive about their experiences of Premier Care. One person told us, “They understand me well. I am totally involved in deciding what they do and they always ask my consent. They are excellent.”

Systems continued to support people to stay safe and reduce the risks to them. People told us they felt safe and knew who to contact if they had any concerns and how to raise a complaint. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse and what action to take to keep people safe. There were enough staff to support people safely and the registered manager had safe recruitment procedures and processes in place.

People received their medicines safely and on time. Staff were trained in administering medicines. People knew what their medication was for and told us they felt reassured by the support with their medicines. People were protected by the prevention and control of infection. Staff wore gloves and aprons when supporting people.

People were supported to maintain their health and had support to access health care services when they needed to. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Without exception, people and relatives told us that staff were kind and compassionate and we observed friendly interactions between staff and people. Staff had a good understanding of the care and support needs of people and had developed positive relationships with them. People were supported to live as independently as possible and told us that their needs were met.

The service was a family run business and had a strong person-centred culture. Quality assurance systems were in place to monitor the service and drive improvements.

More information is in Detailed Findings below.

Rating at last inspection: Outstanding (report published on 1 December 2016). At this inspection there was not enough evidence to support a continued rating of outstanding in the key questions of Caring and Well-led.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the intelligence we receive about this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Good.