First Prime Care Ltd

Updated 23 December 2023

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 and staff.

Inspection team

This inspection was undertaken by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. The registered manager was also a director and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. This was because we needed to ask the provider if they had the technology to support the remote inspection.

Inspection activity started on 29 November 2023 and ended on 11 December 2023.

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 professionals who work with the service. 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 this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as video and telephone calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.

On 29 November 2023 we spoke with the registered manager, a director and care coordinator on a video call, we also fed back our findings to the inspection to these staff members on 11 December 2023.

We spoke with 8 people who used the service and 3 relatives on the telephone, about their views of the service. We also received electronic feedback from 2 relatives and from 6 care and senior care staff members and 3 social care professionals.

We reviewed 5 people’s care records, including care plans, needs assessments, risk assessments, medicines records and daily notes. We reviewed 2 care staff recruitment records and staff training records. We also reviewed a range of records relating to the governance of the service including policies and procedures, complaints, safeguarding and audits.

Updated 23 December 2023

About the service

First Prime Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to adult people living in their own homes. The service can provide support to people with a learning disability, autistic people, people with mental health conditions and people with a physical disability. At the time of our inspection there were 51 people using the service, 27 of these people were receiving personal care support.

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.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not provide a personal care service to anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support:

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.

People were consulted about their care needs and consented to their care plans and risk assessments. People’s independence was being promoted and respected. Risks to people were assessed and mitigated. Systems were in place to reduce the risks of abuse and to keep people safe from avoidable harm. Where people required support with their medicines, this was documented and provided.

People’s views about the service they received were valued and used to drive improvement. There was a complaints procedure in place and people’s concerns were investigated and resolved.

Right Care:

People’s person-centred care records provided guidance to staff in how to meet people’s individual needs and preferences. This included people’s dignity and privacy. There were enough staff to ensure people’s planned visits were undertaken. Staff were recruited safely.

People were cared for and supported by caring staff who were trained to meet their needs and preferences.

Right Culture:

There were systems in place to monitor and assess the care people received. This assisted the management team to identify shortfalls and address them. Lessons were learned from incidents and accidents to reduce them happening again.

The provider, management team and staff were committed to providing people with a caring and good quality service.

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 10 August 2018).

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

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.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.