Practical Care

Updated 7 November 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. 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 Care Act 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.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because 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 September 2019 and ended on 2 October 2019. We visited the office location on 2 October 2019.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we looked at the information we already held about this service. This included details of its registration, previous inspection reports, and notifications of any serious incidents the provider had sent us. We contacted the local authority with responsibility for commissioning care from the service to seek their views. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke by telephone with five people who used the service and seven relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with eight members of staff including the registered manager, a field supervisor, quality assurance manager, the finance and IT manager, three care assistants and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We reviewed a range of records. This included seven people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at seven staff files in relation to recruitment.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. This included looking at staff recruitment records the provider sent us.

Updated 7 November 2019

About the service

Practical Care is a domiciliary care agency providing support with personal care to people in their own homes. Seventy-one people were using the service at the time of the inspection.

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

Systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse. There were enough staff to support people and checks had been carried out on prospective staff to ensure they were suitable to work in a care setting. Risk assessments had been carried out so that people were supported safely. Medicines were well managed, and procedures were established to reduce the risk of the spread of infection.

Assessments were carried out of people’s needs to check the service was able to meet those needs. Staff received support through training and supervision to help them in their role. Where people were supported with meal preparation they were able to choose what they ate and drank. The service worked with other agencies to promote people’s health, safety and wellbeing. 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. People were able to consent to the care provided.

Staff understood how to support people in a way that promoted their dignity, independence and choice. People told us staff were caring in the way they interacted with them. People’s confidentiality and privacy was respected.

Care plans were in place which were personalised around the needs of individuals. Care plans included information about how to support people with their communication needs. Systems were established for dealing with complaints and people told us complaints raised by them had been dealt with appropriately. The service worked with other agencies to support people with end of life care.

People and staff spoke positively about the senior staff and told us they were accessible and helpful. Systems were in place for monitoring and improving the quality of support provided. Some of these included seeking the views of people who used the service.

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 12 July 2018) and there was one breach of regulations. 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.

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.