Archived: Phemacare LTD

Updated 18 June 2016

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 inspection took place on 25 May 2016 and was announced. We told the provider that we were going to visit 48 hours before our inspection. This was because the service provided domiciliary care and we wanted to ensure that the manager and staff would be available to talk with us about the service. One inspector carried out this inspection.

As part of our inspection we looked at the information we held about the service. This included notifications received from the provider about deaths, accidents/incidents and safeguarding alerts which they are required to send us by law. The provider also completed a Provider Information Return (PIR) before our inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used this information to plan our inspection and ensure that any areas of concern were looked at. We also contacted the local authority and asked for their views; they shared some recent information about the service with us.

We spoke with eleven people who used the service and or their relatives by telephone. We visited the services offices and spoke with the providers and five care staff.

We looked at a variety of documents which included five people's care plans, four staff recruitment files, staff training records and other records relating to the management of the service including complaints and audits carried out to monitor and improve the service provided.

Updated 18 June 2016

The Inspection took place on 25 May 2016 and was announced. We told the provider that we were going to visit 48 hours before our inspection. This was because the service provided domiciliary care and we wanted to ensure that staff would be available to talk with us about the service. At our last inspection of this service on 14 September 2014 we found that they were meeting all the regulations that we assessed.

Phemcare Limited is registered to provide personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was providing support and personal care to 50 people.

The registered manager had recently left the service a new manager had been appointed but was not yet registered with us. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.

Systems were in place to monitor the quality of the service. These needed to be more robust to ensure that records relating to people’s care were well maintained.

People and their relatives told us that they felt safe with their staff. Staff were trained in safeguarding adults and understood how to protect people from abuse.

People were supported by staff that were kind, caring and respectful and knew them well.

People had been involved in the planning of their care and received care and support in line with their plan of care.

Risks to people were minimised because there were arrangements in place to manage identified risks with people’s care. Checks were carried out prior to staff starting work to ensure their suitability to work with people who used the service. People had their medicines when they needed them.

Staff were aware of how to support people’s rights and seek their consent before providing care and ensured people were supported to make day to day choices.

People were cared for by staff who were trained and supported so that they could carry out their role effectively.