Privilege Home Care

Updated 11 June 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

This inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector. The inspection started with phone calls to a person and relatives on 12 April 2019. As the registered provider was unavailable for some time thereafter, the inspection concluded on 16 May 2018 at the premises.

Service and service type:

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to people living with dementia, physical disabilities, sensory impairments and younger adults.

The service had someone registered with the Care Quality Commission as a ‘provider’. This means they are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the registered provider is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we had received from the service including notifications about incidents in the home that the registered provider is required to make. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also asked the local authority, safeguarding teams and other professionals who have contact with the home for any information they could share about the service.

During the inspection we spoke with the registered provider, two members of staff, one person who received a home care service and three relatives of people who also received this service. We looked at two people's care plans and other records including those connected with recruitment and training and quality monitoring.

Updated 11 June 2019

About the service: Privilege Home Care is a registered domiciliary care agency providing a range of personal care and support to people with physical and learning disabilities, dementia, sensory impairments and younger adults in their own homes. At the time of our inspection, they were providing personal care and support to six people.

People’s experience of using this service: Systems to assess, monitor and improve the service were not sufficiently robust. Recording in daily notes was not detailed and staff did not accurately record their arrival and leaving times. There were no audits taking place to demonstrate oversight of the service.

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 procedures in the service supported this practice.

A person and people’s relatives told us they felt safe receiving this service. Staff had received safeguarding training and knew how to protect people from harm. Risks to people had been assessed, monitored and reviewed.

No new staff had been recruited since our last inspection. Staff were receiving regular formal support and training needs were up-to-date. This included training in the Mental Capacity Act (2005) which resulted in a breach of regulation at our last inspection.

People received a service from a small number of staff which provided consistency. There were no missed calls reported and feedback indicated staff arrived on time and stayed for the full duration of their visit.

Staff were trained in providing medication, although no one required this assistance at the time of our inspection. People were supported to receive enough to eat and drink.

Relatives confirmed staff supported them to access healthcare services, although they were able to arrange this independently.

Feedback received regarding the care and support staff provided was good and surveys supported this. Staff knew how to protect people’s privacy and dignity and they met the religious and cultural needs.

Care plans were detailed and contained step-by-step guidance for staff to follow. Care was provided around people’s preferences and their routines.

No complaints had been made since out last inspection, but people using this service were aware how to provide feedback if they were unhappy. Feedback regarding the registered provider was positive.

We made recommendations regarding the recording of supervision to make this more personalised to individual staff and introducing body maps.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated as Requires Improvement (April 2018). The rating has stayed the same at this inspection.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection.

Follow up: We have asked the registered provider for an action plan. We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we are scheduled to return. We inspect according to a schedule based on the current rating, however may inspect sooner if we receive information of concern.

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