People's Choice UK

Updated 25 June 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

Inspection team:

The inspection was undertaken by one 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. Seven people were receiving this service.

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.

Inspection activity started on 12 June 2019 and ended on 13 June 2019. This inspection office visit took place on 13 June 2019 and was announced.

Notice of inspection.

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because some of the people using it could not consent to a home visit from an inspector. This meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this.

What we did before the inspection:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since our 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 the service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During our inspection:

We visited the office location on 13 June 2019 to see and speak with the registered manager. We spoke with seven people and three relatives by telephone. We spoke with a senior care staff member, a care coordinator and the office administrator. We also spoke with four care staff by telephone.

We looked at a range of records. This included three people's care records and medication records. We also looked at one staff file in relation to recruitment and supervision. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance, accidents and incidents, policies and procedures, compliments and complaints.

Updated 25 June 2019

About the service:

People's Choice UK is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to people living with dementia, people with a physical disability, older people and people with sensory impairments. Their office is based in Bedford. At the time of our inspection visit there were 34 people receiving a service of personal care.

Not everyone using People's Choice UK receives the regulated activity of personal care. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care, help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

Peoples experience of using this service:

Appropriate steps had been taken to safeguard people. Risks to people were identified and managed well. The provider had maintained safe staff recruitment processes. There were enough suitable staff. Competent staff administered and managed people’s medicines safely. Infection control systems promoted good hygiene standards.

Staff were provided with the necessary support to carry out their role and staff received training to maintain and develop their skills. People's needs were met. One relative told us how impressed they were with staff's skills. People's independence was upheld and promoted with enough to eat and drink as well as accessing healthcare 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 cared for by staff with compassion, kindness and dignity. Staff knew people well and they promoted people’s privacy, cultural needs and independence. People had a say and choice in who and how their care was provided. One person told us, "It is the little things staff do which make the biggest difference to me."

The registered manager promoted and supported an honest and open staff team culture. Staff upheld the provider's values by helping people live a meaningful life. Audits, quality assurance systems and oversight of the service was effective in driving improvements. People received good quality care. People had a say in how the service was run. The management team worked well with other organisations. People, relatives and staff were unanimous in recommending the service to others.

The last rating for this service was good (published 3 December 2016).

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

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

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