Prime Way Care Ltd

Updated 26 February 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 team consisted of two adult social care inspectors 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. Their area of expertise is with domiciliary care services and residential care services.

Service and service type:

The service is a domiciliary care service and provides the regulated activity of personal care to people in their own homes. For domiciliary care services, CQC does not regulate the accommodation people live in and for this reason we have only looked at the care people received. At the time of the inspection the service was provided to people living in the inner city area of Bristol.

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:

The inspection of the service was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and we needed to ensure the registered manager and other key people in the service were available to speak with us.

Inspection site visit activity started on 23 January 2019 for one day. It included conversations with the registered manager, the deputy, the business manager, the HR manager and the two care coordinators. We reviewed care records, staff recruitment files and training records, the policies and procedures of the service and their audit arrangments.

What we did when preparing and carrying out this inspection:

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about any incidents the provider must notify us about. We asked social care professionals for their views and experience of working with the service and have included their comments in the report.

During the inspection we spoke with seven people who used the service and five relatives. We received feedback from eight care workers. We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records, medicines records, 15 staff recruitment and training records and other records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 26 February 2019

What life is like for people using this service:

People received a safe service and were comfortable with the care workers who supported them. The staff received safeguarding vulnerable adults training and would report any concerns they had about a person’s safety or welfare to the office team.

Each person we spoke with said the service they received from Primeway Care was good and met their expected needs. They told us the staff were kind and treated them with dignity and respect.

The staff team received training to enable them to carry out their jobs well and were well supported by the management team.

People were provided with a person centred service and they received the service that had been agreed. They were involved in making decisions about how they were looked after and the staff took account of their preferences and any choices they made.

People did not have any complaints about the service they received but would feel able to raise any concerns they had with the office staff. No concerns had been raised with the local authority commissioning team.

People received a service that was well led. The registered manager and other members of the management team provided good leadership and management. There were good systems and processes in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service. People were encouraged to have a say about the service and their views were welcomed.

More information about this inspection is available in the detailed findings sections of the full report.

Rating at last inspection:

When the service was last fully inspected we rated the service as Good (reported published 3 May 2017). We visited the service again on 6 September 2018 because some concerns had been reported to us. We did a focused inspection looking at aspects of the safe and well led areas. We did not need to revise our judgements following this inspection and the report was published on 26 September 2018.

About the service:

Primeway Care is a domiciliary care service providing personal care support to people in their own homes. The service currently covered the inner city area of Bristol, but the provider planned to expand the area they covered, as part of the growth of the service. At the time of the inspection the service were supporting 18 people and had 20 care workers.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. The service has remained rated Good overall.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until the next inspection. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.