Pinnacle Caring Services Limited

Updated 18 December 2019

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 homes.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The registered provider was 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 would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 8 October 2019 and ended on 17 October 2019. We visited the office location on 8 and 17 October 2019.

What we did before inspection

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

During the inspection

We spoke with one person who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided by email. We visited one person in their own home. We spoke with three members of staff and the registered provider.

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

Updated 18 December 2019

Pinnacle Caring is a domiciliary care service providing 24 hour care and support to people in their own homes. They were providing a service to two people at the time of the inspection.

The service did not have a registered manager. The registered provider had full oversight of the service and supported the inspection process.

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

The registered provider had not reviewed and kept their policies and procedures up to date to reflect best practice guidance. Audit systems were in place but had not been consistently completed to ensure areas for development and improvement were identified in a timely manner.

Medication was managed safely. Staff who managed medication had completed the required training and had their competency regularly assessed. Staff had access to best practice guidelines to support their practice. Medication administration records (MARs) were fully completed. We have made a recommendation about the auditing of medication.

People were supported by staff that had been safely recruited and had received training to support them in their role. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and people told us regular staff visited them and had got to know them well.

People’s needs were assessed before they were supported by the service. Each person had a care plan that included their preferences and routines. Care plans were person centred and held sufficient information to guide staff on how best to meet people’s needs. People told us staff were kind, caring and attentive. Staff had a clear understanding of how to meet people’s individual needs. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests.

Staff had received training on how to keep people safe. They told us they felt confident to raise any concerns they had about people’s safety.

Staff had received infection control training and followed good practice to minimise the risk of infection being spread. People’s privacy and dignity was respected, and their independence promoted to the full. People spoke positively about the service and the staff that supported them.

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

Rating at last inspection and update: The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 11 October 2018) and there were two breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation 18 however; improvements were still required to regulation 17.

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.