Pinnacle Cares For You Limited

Updated 13 December 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of 1 inspector 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.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

The inspection was announced. 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.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection, including notifications of significant events. We contacted the local authority to ask for feedback. We used the information the provider had sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. These included care records for 3 people and staff records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, incident records, reports, rota planning and policies. As part of the inspection, we spoke with 2 people who used the service and 7 relatives. We contacted 4 care and management staff over the telephone and 1 via email. We sought feedback via email from 3 external health and social care professionals.

Updated 13 December 2023

About the service

Pinnacle Cares For You is a is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service supports older people. At the time of our inspection there were 72 people receiving the regulated activity of personal care.

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.

People’s experience of the service and what we found

People felt safe and well supported. They benefitted from receiving a continuity of care from a core team of carers, who knew them well. The provider used an electronic call monitoring system and associated software to ensure that call times were well planned and that people, and the staff who supported them, were safe.

There were always enough staff to meet people’s needs and staff were consistently on time, as well as staying for the full duration of calls. Staff knew how to keep people safe and reacted promptly when they had any concerns.

The culture was an open, learning one, within which any errors were used as an opportunity for learning.

Medicines were managed safely and staff competence and knowledge reviewed regularly. Staff were trained in core areas to keep people safe, and in areas specific to individual needs.

The provider proactively analysed data to establish any developing patterns or trends, and to improve practice.

People, their relatives and external professionals all felt the service was well run and organised. They had confidence in staff and systems at all levels.

The provider worked proactively with people, relatives and partners to ensure the care they were delivering was to a high standard.

The registered manager was open, transparent, keen to continually improve the service and knowledgeable about the broader health and social care landscape.

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 8 August 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

Follow Up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.