Pride Home Care

Updated 29 June 2022

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

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors 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 service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because 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. 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 this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people who used the service and five people’s relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with nine staff including the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. These including 10 people’s care records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and a variety of records relating to the management of the service. These included policies and procedures, audits, staff training records, and compliments and complaints.

Updated 29 June 2022

About the service

Pride Home Care is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to adults and older people. At the

time of the inspection the service was providing care to 116 people.

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

Medicines were not well managed to keep people safe. Auditing of medicines had taken place but failed to identify a number of concerns we identified, putting people at risk of harm. The registered manager took immediate action to strengthen this area and protect people.

As an outcome of our inspection, we have made a recommendation about the administration of medicines.

Feedback from people and their relatives was mixed. Some told us that timing of care calls varied and they were not sure who would be supporting them or when. Other people stated how good the staff were and supported them well.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities under safeguarding and ensured that any complaints of safeguarding concerns were investigated to enable improvements to the service provided to people.

Staff received training to enable them to support people safely. This included people’s specific health care needs such as for those people living with Dementia. People told us they felt staff were trained appropriately.

People and their families told us the registered manager was approachable and that if they had any concerns or comments they would feel comfortable contacting them and feel they would be listened too.

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.

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 01 November 2021) with a breach of regulation 17 (good governance). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection, whilst we found improvements had been made the provider remained in breach of regulation 17.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service published on 01 November 2021. A breach of legal requirements was found.

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 remained Requires Improvement. 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 Pride Home Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified a breach in relation to oversight of medicine administration at this inspection. 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 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.