Supreme Care Services Limited

Updated 10 December 2021

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:

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors and two Expert by Experiences. 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, flats and specialist housing.

The service had a manager registered with the CQC. 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:

This inspection was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice to enable them to ensure they could accommodate an inspection as safely as possible. Inspection activity started on 18 November 2021 and ended on 30 November 2021.

What we did before the inspection:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We reviewed statutory notifications submitted by the provider. Statutory notifications contain information providers are required to send to us about significant events that take place within services. 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 with the registered manager, the quality and compliance consultant 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 including six people’s care records, medicines administration records for five people, four staff records and other records relating to the management of the service.

After the inspection:

We spoke with eight people using the service, eleven relatives and five care support workers. We also obtained feedback from the contract quality monitoring teams at two local authorities that worked with the service. We continued to speak with the registered manager, the quality and compliance consultant and the nominated individual and sought clarification about the evidence gathered.

Updated 10 December 2021

About the service

Supreme Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living in their own houses, flats and specialist housing in the community. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service received by people provided with ‘personal care’, that is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do this, we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection there were 65 people using the service, living in the London Boroughs of Croydon and Bromley.

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

People were safe. Staff had been trained and understood how to safeguard people from abuse.

Staff understood the risks to people’s safety and wellbeing and what they should do to keep people safe. At the time of this inspection the provider was taking action to improve the quality of information for staff about risks to make this easier to read and follow.

There were enough staff at the time of this inspection to support people using the service and meet their needs. People did not have significant concerns about the timeliness of their scheduled care visits. The provider made sure the same staff attended care visits so people experienced continuity in the support they received.

Recruitment and criminal records checks had been undertaken on staff to make sure they were suitable to support people.

People were supported to take their prescribed medicines. Staff followed current practice and guidance to reduce infection and hygiene risks within people’s homes.

People had positive experiences of using the service and were satisfied with the care and support they received from staff. The provider obtained and acted on people’s feedback about how the service could continue to improve.

The provider made sure accidents, incidents and complaints were investigated and people were kept informed of the outcome. They undertook regular checks to monitor, review and improve the quality and safety of the service and addressed any issues found through these checks.

At the time of this inspection the provider was working proactively with local authorities as part of their ongoing contract quality monitoring arrangements. The provider had dealt with concerns raised in an appropriate way and was making the improvements required to the quality and safety of the support people received. The provider had also made improvements to the submission of statutory notifications to CQC of events and incidents involving people to make sure we received these without delay.

The provider worked well with healthcare professionals involved in people’s care and acted on their recommendations to deliver care and support that met people’s needs.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published 20 December 2018).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the timeliness of people’s care visits, missed care visits, record keeping and management and leadership at the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service remains unchanged from Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We also looked at infection prevention and control measures under the safe key question. We look at this in inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service. If we receive any concerning information we may re-inspect sooner.