Priority Care (Shropshire) Limited

Updated 12 July 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection site visit took place on 31 May 2018, along with calls to people and relatives, calls to staff took place on 6 June 2018. The inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to make sure someone was in. The inspection team consisted of one 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.

As part of the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service, including notifications. A notification is information about events that by law the registered persons should tell us about. We asked for feedback from the commissioners of people's care to find out their views on the quality of the service. We also contacted the Local Authority Safeguarding Team for information they held about the service. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is 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.

During the inspection, we spoke with seven people who used the service and four relatives. We also spoke with the provider, the registered manager, the care plan officer, the care manager and four staff.

We reviewed the care records of five people and three staff files, which included pre-employment checks and training records. We also looked at other records relating to the management of the service including staff rotas, timesheets, compliment and complaint logs, audits, and medicine administration records.

Updated 12 July 2018

This inspection site visit took place on 31 May 2018, along with calls to people and relatives, calls to staff took place on 6 June 2018. The inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to make sure someone was in.

At our last inspection we found improvements were needed to staffing and how risks were assessed and people were supported in line with their preferences. We also found improvements were needed to staff training and the systems in place to monitor the quality of the service. At this inspection we found the provider had made some of the required improvements but more were needed to ensure there were sufficient staff in place to provide support.

Priority Care (Shropshire) Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. It provides a service to older adults, younger disabled adults and children. At the time of our inspection there were 32 people using the service.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People did not always receive support from consistent staff. There were not always sufficient staff to meet people’s needs at the time they wanted.

People were safeguarded from abuse. People had plans in place which supported them to reduce the risks to their safety. People received support from staff to administer their medicines safely. People were protected from the risk of infection. The registered manager had systems in place to learn when things went wrong.

People’s needs were assessed; and care plans were in place to guide staff. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff were aware of how to support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service were supportive of this practice. People were supported to maintain a healthy diet. People were supported to access health professionals when required.

People were supported by caring staff that protected their privacy and dignity. People had support to make decisions and choices about their care and maintain their independence.

People’s preferences were understood by staff and recorded in their care plans. People understood how to make a complaint and felt their concerns would be addressed. Staff understood how to provide people with care at the end of their life and the registered manager had a system in place to assess people’s needs.

The systems in place to monitor the quality of the service were not consistent in identifying concerns. Improvements were needed in how the registered manager and provider used information to drive improvements. A registered manager was in post; and people, relatives and staff felt they were approachable.