Paladins Care Limited

Updated 21 March 2020

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:

This inspection was carried out 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.

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:

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 provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 February 2020 and ended on 20 February 2020. We visited the office location on 17 February 2020. We spoke to people and their relatives to collect feedback about the service on 19 and 20 February 2020.

What we did before the inspection:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We spoke to professionals who worked with the service to collect their feedback. The provider was not asked to complete the Provider Information Return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account in making our judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection:

We spoke with five people and two relatives about their experience of the care provided by the service. We spoke with six care staff and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records which included all aspects of care and risk. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment, training and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, rota management, policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection:

The registered manager sent us further evidence in relation to quality assurance records and training data.

Updated 21 March 2020

About the service

Paladins Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their

own homes or flats. The service provides care visits and offered live-in support for people in the day and overnight.

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. The service was supporting 22 older and younger adults with the regulated activity of personal care at the time of this inspection.

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

People were positive about their care. One person told us, ‘‘[Staff] are brilliant and so kind. They really know what is important to me.’’

People received kind and compassionate care from staff who had got to know them as individuals. People’s care was tailored to meet their specific needs and preferences. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity, and supported people to stay as independent as possible. The registered manager involved people in their care planning and staff ensured that people were supported to make choices about their day to day care.

Staff had a good understanding of safeguarding and how to keep people safe. Risk assessments were completed to help mitigate any risk to people while they were being supported. There were enough staff to support people safely and staff were recruited robustly to ensure that they were fit for the job role. Staff members received training and supervision to ensure they could support people effectively. People were supported safely with their medicines. The registered manager reviewed any incidents and shared any lessons learned with the staff team.

People’s needs were assessed before they began using the service. People were supported to eat a balanced diet depending on their support needs in this area. Staff supported people to live healthy lives and contacted health professionals if more support was needed. People were supported to access the community and take part in activities which met their preferences and interests. People had access to a complaints procedure and complaints were responded to appropriately.

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.

The registered manager had developed a positive culture at the service. They were open and honest about improvements that needed to be made in areas such as call time monitoring, medicines management and staff support. Plans were in place to rectify these issues. People and the staff team were regularly asked for feedback about the service. The registered manager linked and worked with other organisations to promote positive outcomes for people.

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 24 May 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

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