P T Care UK Ltd

PT Care UK Limited is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care. The agency office is based near Sheffield city centre. Support is currently provided to people living in their own homes in Sheffield. At the time of this inspection the service was supporting 39 people with 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 using this service and what we found

The provider had not operated safe recruitment practices when employing new staff.

The provider had not implemented an effective governance system to ensure people, their relatives and staff had regular opportunities to provide feedback about the service. Feedback must be sought on a regular basis and reviewed to support the service to improve.

Some relatives told us their family members visits were not always carried out at the agreed times and staff did not always stay the agreed length of time. They also told us they were not always informed when staff were going to be late. People said they were satisfied with the times care staff visited. People told us they felt safe using the service.

There were systems and processes in place to minimise risks to people. These included making sure staff knew how to recognise and report abuse.

People’s care plans contained details of risks posed to people, with guidance for staff about any actions they need to take to mitigate those risks.

We have made a recommendation about the risk assessments and care plans for some people.

People said they mostly got their medicines on time although some relatives were not sure their family member always received their ‘as required’ medicines and there had been some issues with medicines not being reordered. Relatives said the registered manager had addressed these issues when brought to their attention.

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 good (published 18 December 2018).

Why we inspected

We received some concerns in relation to the management of medicines and people’s care records and risk assessments. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

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 changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for PT Care UK Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

PT Care UK Limited is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care. The agency office is based near Sheffield city centre. Support is currently provided to people living in their own homes in Sheffield. The agency provides support with personal care, domestic tasks and companionship. At the time of this inspection the service was supporting twelve people with personal care.

There was a manager at the service who was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A registered manager is a person who has registered with the 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The registered manager told us the service started supporting people in May 2017. The service changed their office base in November 2017. This was the services first CQC inspection.

People spoke very positively about the support provided to them. They told us they felt safe and their support workers were respectful and kind.

Care plans identified risks to people, and management plans to reduce the risks were in place to ensure people's safety.

There were appropriate numbers of staff employed to meet people’s needs and provide a flexible service. Robust recruitment procedures were in operation and promoted people’s safety.

Appropriate arrangements were in place for the safe administration of medicines.

Staff were provided with relevant training, supervision and appraisal for development and support.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The registered provider’s policies and systems supported this practice. People had consented to receiving care and support from PT Care UK Ltd.

Staff knew the person they were supporting well and had developed a positive relationship with them. In our conversations with staff they displayed compassion, consideration and respect for people.

People said they could speak with their support worker, the registered manager or provider if they had any worries or concerns and they would be listened to.

The service was well-led and well managed. There were some quality audit systems in place which could be developed further so people receive feedback about the quality of the service.