Archived: Principle Support Limited

Updated 19 January 2018

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

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

This was a comprehensive inspection took place on 18 December 2017 and was carried out by one inspector with the registered provider being given short notice of the visit to the office in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure the registered manager, some staff and some people receiving support would be available to meet and speak with us.

Prior to the inspection visit we gathered information from a number of sources. We looked at the information received about the service from notifications sent to the Care Quality Commission by the registered manager. Due to technical problems, the provider was not able to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, an operational manager, a team leader and two support workers. We visited one person in their home and telephoned and spoke with three relatives of people who used the service to obtain their views of the support provided.

We reviewed a range of records, which included care records for three people, staff training, support and employment records and other records relating to the management of the domiciliary care agency.

Updated 19 January 2018

This inspection took place on 18 December 2017.The service was last inspected in February 2016. At that time, the service was rated 'Good' across each of the five key questions. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

Principle Support Limited is registered to provide personal care to adults with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder, challenging behaviour and physical impairments and/or sensory impairments and older people in their own homes and community. The office is situated in the Handsworth area of Sheffield. Not everyone using Principle Support Limited receives the regulated activity, personal care. Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; which is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection Principle Support Limited were supporting 8 people with regulated activity.

There was a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

There were systems in place to protect people from harm, including how medicines were managed. Staff were trained in how to recognise and respond to abuse and understood their responsibility to report any concerns to the management team.

Safe recruitment processes were followed and appropriate checks had been undertaken, which made sure only suitable staff were employed to care for people.

People were supported in a kind caring way that took account of their individual needs and preferences. People and their families were supported to express their views and be involved in decisions about their care.

People were supported to have choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems supported this practice.

Staff were supported to provide appropriate care to people because they were trained, supervised and appraised. There was an induction, training and development programme, which supported staff to gain relevant knowledge and skills.

People received regular and ongoing health checks and support to attend appointments. They were supported to eat and drink enough to meet their needs and to make informed choices about what they ate.

The service was responsive to people’s needs and staff listened to what staff said. People could be confident that any concerns or complaints would be listened to and dealt with.

Systems were in place that continuously assessed and monitored the quality of the service.