About the serviceManchester Prime Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the service was supporting three 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
Since the last inspection clear and effective governance systems had not been implemented and embedded to help identify areas of non-compliance and the action required.
The provider had still not ensured safe recruitment procedures were followed to make sure staff had the required skills and were of suitable character and background
Since the last inspection risk management plans had been developed in specific areas of support. However, staff training identified as part of the risk management plan remained outstanding. This showed the provider had not ensured staff had received the training they required to meet people’s needs.
Safer systems had been introduced with regards to the management of people’s prescribed medicines and safeguarding people from harm. Appropriate arrangements had been maintained with regards to infection control procedures. Enough protective equipment was available, and staff had received training and relevant guidance covering the current pandemic.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. People, their relatives and staff spoke positively about the management changes and felt there was good communication and support from the manager.
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 Inadequate and the service was placed in Special Measures (published 30 July 2020). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. Since July 2020 ownership of the service has changed, however the legal entity remains the same. At this inspection enough improvement had not been made and the provider was still in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 9 March 2020. Breaches of legal requirements were found, and we served requirement actions for Regulations 12 Safe Care and Treatment, 13 Safeguarding, 17 Good Governance, 18 Staffing and 19 Recruitment. 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.
The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service remains Inadequate. 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 Manchester Prime Care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
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 discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified on-going breaches in relation to staff training, recruitment procedures and good governance at this inspection.
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 work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
Special Measures
The overall rating for this service is ‘Requires improvement’. However, the service will remain in 'special measures'. We do this when services have been rated as 'Inadequate' in any Key Question over two consecutive comprehensive inspections. The ‘Inadequate’ rating does not need to be in the same question at each of these inspections for us to place services in special measures. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.
If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.
For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.