Personalized Care Services

Updated 18 March 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.

This was a focused inspection to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the Requirement Notices in relation to Safe care and treatment and Good Governance of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by an 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 who was also the registered provider.

Notice of inspection

We called the service the day before the inspection to give them 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.

Inspection activity started on 31 January 2023 and ended on 16 February 2023. We visited the location’s office on 2 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we hold about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority commissioners and safeguarding teams. We used the information the provider 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 of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 people who used the service and 6 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 6 members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager and care staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 peoples care records and medication records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 18 March 2023

About the service

Personalized Care Services is a domiciliary care service that provides care and support for people in their own homes. They provide some short-term packages and support people back to independence. 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 service was supporting 63 people with personal care. Many people using the service were older people and some were people with a learning disability and autistic people.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

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

Right Support: People were happy with the care and support they received. People were supported by a regular team of staff who knew them well. This promoted continuity of care. 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. Staff worked in partnership with people, relatives and health and social care professionals to provide good outcomes for people.

Right Care: People told us they felt safe with staff and were complimentary of the care they received. People's needs and preferences were assessed prior to receiving the service. People received consistent care from staff who knew them well. People and those important to them were involved in planning their care. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff were recruited safely. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and deliver consistent care.

Improvements had been made to how risks were managed. A new computer system for developing and monitoring care records was in place and working well. Overall care records contained the information staff required to deliver safe and personalised care to people. We have made a recommendation about risk assessments.

Right Culture: The provider and care team listened and responded to people's views. Quality assurance and monitoring systems had been improved. The provider used their audit processes to learn lessons, reduce risk and improve the quality of care people received. Improvements had been made to ensure medicines and risks to people’s health and wellbeing were being safely managed. The provider was passionate about their service and promoted an inclusive, open and person-centred culture.

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 April 2022) 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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 4 November 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

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 requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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