Pringles Care Services - Central

Updated 6 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 conducted by 1 inspector and 1 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 and specialist housing.

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

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 27 April and ended on 18 May 2023. We visited the location’s office on 3 May 2023.

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 authorities 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

During the inspection we spoke with 3 care staff, a care coordinator and the registered manager. We also spoke with 4 people who used the service, 5 relatives and a professional who had worked with the service recently. We looked at a range of care records, including 5 people's care and risk management plans, 3 staff recruitment files, and a variety of records relating to medicines support and the management of the service.

Updated 6 June 2023

About the service

Pringles Care Services - Central is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people in their own homes in the London Boroughs of Barnet and Ealing. At the time of the inspection the agency was supporting 28 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

People felt safe and the service met their care and support needs. The provider developed care plans with people and their relatives that set out their likes, care preferences and communication needs.

The provider assessed and planned to risks to people’s safety and wellbeing. Staff supported people with their medicines safely. There were systems in place to help protect people from abuse and to investigate and learn when things went wrong.

People were usually visited by the same care workers who they were on time and familiar with their care needs. People and their relatives knew how to raise issues or complaints and could contact the service when they needed to.

Staff received training and regular supervision and felt supported in their roles by the registered manager and office staff. There were recruitment processes in place to help make sure only suitable staff were employed.

There were audit systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and identify when improvements were required. People and staff were asked to give feedback about 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 24 May 2022) and there were breaches of regulation. 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.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced focus inspection of this service on 31 March and 1 April 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance.

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, responsive and well-led. 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 changed from requires improvement to good. 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 Pringles Care Services - Central on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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