UK Prime Care Services

UK Prime Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to younger adults, older people, including people living with dementia.

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.

At the time of the inspection the provider was supporting 9 people across 4 London Boroughs.

People’s care was funded through a local authority direct payment agreement. A direct payment is the amount of money that the local authority has to pay to meet the needs of people and is given to them to have control and choice over who they choose to provide their care.

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

This was a targeted inspection that focused on the management of risk, the management of medicines, how the provider ensured people consented to their care, safer recruitment practices and the overall management of the service.

Based on our inspection of these areas, whilst we found the provider had made a number of improvements with the service, not all of them had been fully addressed in line with the providers action plan.

Although the issues we found did not directly impact the level of care and support people received, improvements were still needed with the management of medicines and the governance systems within the service.

People and their relatives continued to be extremely positive about the service and highlighted the benefits of having staff who spoke their first language to help communication and to understand their cultural needs.

People and their relatives were confident in the management of the service and had regular communication and opportunities to feedback about their care.

People and their relatives continued to tell us the positive impact the care they received had on their lives. One relative told us staff regularly stayed longer to support their family member, which was always greatly appreciated.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were supported by staff who felt valued as part of the organisation and were dedicated towards providing good care. Staff continued to speak positively about the supportive working environment.

The provider acknowledged they had not made of all the necessary improvements since the last inspection. Whilst they were working on all areas, they had not been able to implement everything from their action plan and was still a work in progress.

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 21 September 2022) and there were four continued breaches of regulations. We issued a Warning Notice after the last inspection and the provider completed an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection we found the provider remained in breach of regulations. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

We undertook this targeted inspection to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met. We also checked the provider had met requirements for 3 further breaches of regulations from the last inspection.

The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement.

We use targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.

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

Although improvements were found and the provider was working towards making further improvements across the service, not enough improvement had been made regarding the management of people’s medicines and the governance of the service. Further improvements were still in the process of being implemented. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this report.

Enforcement

We have identified repeated breaches in relation to safe care and treatment regarding the management of medicines and good governance.

We have sent a Regulation 17(3) Letter to the provider in relation to their failure to effectively operate systems and processes to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided in carrying on the regulated activities. A Regulation 17(3) Letter stipulates the improvements needed to meet breaches of regulation, seeks an action plan and requires a provider to regularly report to CQC on their progress with meeting their action plan.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will request an action plan to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will also share this with the relevant local authorities while we monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

UK Prime Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to younger disabled adults, older people, including people living with dementia. 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.

At the time of the inspection the provider was supporting seven people in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Lewisham.

People’s care was funded through a local authority direct payment agreement. A direct payment is the amount of money that the local authority has to pay to meet the needs of people and is given to them to have control and choice over who they choose to provide their care.

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

Although the issues we found did not directly impact the level of care and support people received, improvements had not been made since the last inspection in October 2021. Improvements were still needed with the level of information and quality of the care records and risk assessments in place.

Important information related to people’s care and support was still not always being recorded and safer recruitment practices were still not being followed. The providers monitoring processes were still not effective as they had not picked up all the issues we found during this inspection.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice. However, the records in place did not always ensure care staff had appropriate information about whether people had capacity to make specific decisions about their care.

Feedback was positive about the kind and caring attitude of the whole staff team and people and their relatives confirmed staff had observed their care before starting and knew them well.

People and their relatives highlighted the positive benefits of having staff who spoke their first language to help communication and to understand their cultural needs.

People and their relatives were positive about the management of the service and had regular communication and opportunities to feedback about their care.

People were supported by staff who enjoyed working for the company and spoke positively about their working environment and the support they received. Staff were also able to speak with the provider in their native language to support them in their role.

People and their relatives told us staff were patient and understanding and regularly went the extra mile to support them. One relative told us they were also provided with emotional support which had a positive impact on their own health and wellbeing.

The provider told us it had been a challenging experience since the last inspection trying to manage the service and acknowledged there were still improvements to be made.

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 8 December 2021) and there were 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 the provider remained in breach of regulations. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

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

Enforcement

We have identified repeated breaches in relation to consent to care, safe care and treatment, good governance and fit and proper persons employed at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

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

UK Prime Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to younger disabled adults, older people, including people living with dementia 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.

At the time of the inspection the provider was supporting six people in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Lewisham.

People’s care was funded through a local authority direct payment agreement. A direct payment is the amount of money that the local authority has to pay to meet the needs of people and is given to them to have control and choice over who they choose to provide their care.

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

Although the issues we found did not directly impact the level of care and support people received, improvements were needed with the level of information and quality of the care records and risk assessments in place.

Important information related to people’s care and support was not always recorded or in place. Safer recruitment practices were not always followed. The providers monitoring processes were not always effective as they had not picked up all the issues we found during this inspection.

The provider did not consistently use their systems and processes to demonstrate people were always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff were always supporting them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests.

Feedback was positive about the kind and caring attitude of the staff team and relatives praised the benefits of having staff who spoke their first language to help communication and to understand their cultural needs.

Before care started staff were introduced to people and observed their care needs to ensure they had a good understanding of how to support them. One relative told us they would confirm with the provider if they felt the staff were competent and if they felt comfortable with them in their home before they started.

The provider aimed to be as flexible and accommodating as possible and listened to people and their relatives to work around their lives to help meet their needs. One relative said, “Flexibility for us is such a big thing and this is one of the best parts about the service.”

People and their relatives were positive about the management of the service and were given opportunities to feedback about their care. Relatives said they felt comfortable contacting the provider if they had to, could always make contact with the provider and were confident they would be listened to.

People were supported by staff who felt appreciated and supported in their role, who highlighted a positive working environment. Staff were also able to speak with the provider in their native language which helped their understanding.

Relatives told us they felt staff went above and beyond their duties to provide the necessary care and support.

We have made a recommendation in relation to staff training and supervision.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 26 February 2019 and this is the first inspection. There had been periods of time where it had not been providing personal care.

Why we inspected

We carried out this inspection following a routine review of information we held about this service. Our intelligence indicated there may be a higher level of risk at this service due to the length of time it had been registered and not been inspected.

We carried out a monitoring activity that took place on 24 and 28 September 2021. Monitoring activities involve a structured call to the provider or manager of a service, gathering information about the experiences of people using the service and additional evidence requests when required.

Enforcement

We have identified four breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, consent, recruitment practices and good governance.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service. If we receive any concerning information we may return to inspect.