Positive Care and Support Ltd

Updated 9 June 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.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by an inspector.

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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ 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 26 April 2023 and ended on 9 May 2023. We visited the service on 26 April 2023 and 3 May 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. 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

Some people had limited verbal communication or chose not to speak with us about their care, so we spent time observing interactions between people and staff. We received feedback from 3 professionals about the support provided. We spoke with 8 staff including the nominated individual, the registered manager, a team leader, 3 support workers (including support workers employed via an agency) and 2 day centre staff. The day centre staff were employed by the provider to support one of the individuals from a day centre base. They also supported the person with social activities in their own home and community. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

Updated 9 June 2023

About the service

Positive Care and Support Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 2 people using the service. The service supports people who have a learning disability and/or who are autistic.

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

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.

Right Support:

The service faced challenges in recruiting appropriately skilled staff who could be matched to the people receiving support. There were, however, enough staff to ensure people’s needs were met safely. There was on-going recruitment for permanent staff, in the meantime consistent agency staff were being used whenever possible. Agency staff were supervised and had their competency to support with medicines assessed in the same way as directly employed staff. There were occasions when agency staff were introduced who did not know people well, but they were given information about people’s needs.

We have made a recommendation about consistency of staffing and support.

People were supported to take medicines safely. Staff helped people to live as independently as possible. 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 supporting people knew people’s risks and how to manage these safely. There was a culture in place where staff felt comfortable in raising concerns if they had them.

Right Care: People using the service were able to express their own views. When things went wrong, actions were put into place and lessons learned were shared with staff to improve the standard of care delivered. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. Staff worked with health professionals where they had concerns about people’s health.

Right Culture: Staff understood and spoke positively about the importance of person-centred care and helping people to live as independently as they wished. Work was ongoing to establish people’s goals and work towards achieving these. The management team understood their roles and responsibilities and there were governance systems to support this. The service had only been supporting people since July 2022 and some systems and processes were in development. For example, although some feedback had been collected about the service, satisfaction surveys were being sent out for the first time.

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 14 December 2021, and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The service was inspected due to the length of time since it registered with CQC.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation about consistency of staffing and support.

Follow up

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