Primavera Domiciliary Care Services Limited

Updated 5 January 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 was carried out by one inspector and one 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

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. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 1 person who used the service and 6 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 7 members of staff including support staff, the registered manager and the office administrator.

We reviewed a range of records including 5 people's care records and 4 people’s medicines records. We looked at 4 staff files in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures and audits were also reviewed.

Updated 5 January 2023

Primavera Domiciliary Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to older people living in their own homes, some of whom were living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 20 people using the service.

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

People and their relatives told us that the support workers who supported their family member were kind and caring. However, despite this feedback we identified areas of concern similar to those identified at the previous inspection which had not been addressed.

Risks associated with people’s health and care needs had been assessed, however, we found examples where information contained within care plans and related risk assessments was not always consistent. This meant that clear guidance and direction was not always available to staff on how to manage risks to keep people safe. Staff recruitment processes had not been robustly completed and verified to ensure that staff employed were suitable to work with vulnerable adults.

Management oversight processes were ineffective and did not identify the issues we identified as part of the inspection process.

People received their medicines safely and as prescribed. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to raise concerns if they felt a person was being abused. The service understood the importance of infection prevention and control and had measures in place to help keep people safe from risk of infection.

People were supported by support workers who had been trained and were skilled in their role. Support workers told us they felt supported in their role. People were supported to eat and drink enough. The service supported people to lead healthy lives and supported them to access relevant health care services where required. 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.

People and their relatives were happy with the support they received from their support workers and the registered manager. People and relatives had been involved in the planning and delivery of care.

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 15 February 2020).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to recruitment and management oversight of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective 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.

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

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to recruitment of staff and management oversight of the service. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

We made one recommendation about improving the care plan and risk assessment practice.

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.