PIC 24 Healthcare Ltd

Updated 9 June 2022

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 undertaken by one 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 service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced.

We gave the service 48 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. We visited the location’s office on 9 May 2022.

What we did before the inspection

In planning our inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service and feedback from the local authority.

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We used information gathered as part of a monitoring activity that took place on 8 March 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke over the telephone with three relatives of people who used the service. We emailed five staff to ask a range of questions. We spoke with one care worker in person and the registered manager. We visited the office location to review written records. We looked at three people's care records. We checked records relating to the management of the service including policies and procedures and quality assurance records.

Updated 9 June 2022

PIC 24 Healthcare Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to four people at the time of the inspection. 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 were safe. Staff had been trained to safeguard people from abuse. They understood the risks to people's safety and wellbeing and what they should do to minimise these. Staff were recruited in a robust and safe way to ensure they were suitable to support people. The service had infection prevention and control measures in place which were in line with current guidance. People received a consistent and reliable service, provided by regular staff with whom they were familiar.

People had the support they needed to manage and take their medicines safely. The management team reviewed any accidents or incidents involving people who used the service, in order to learn from these.

The registered manager and provider promoted a person-centred culture within the service. People’s care and support was delivered in a kind and caring manner. People and their relatives were encouraged to provide feedback about the service they received, so any improvements could be identified.

The provider had quality assurance systems and processes in place to enable them to monitor and improve people's care. Staff and management sought to maintain positive working relationships with the community professionals involved in people’s care.

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 (report published 7 November 2019). At this inspection we found improvements had been made.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced inspection of this service on 16 October 2019. We found some improvements were needed and we rated the service requires improvement to the key questions of Safe and Well-led.

We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had made improvements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last comprehensive 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 PIC 24 Healthcare Ltd 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.