Proper Care (Cornwall) Limited

Updated 28 March 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

One inspector and an Expert by Experience completed this inspection. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people who used the service and 7 relatives by telephone about the quality of care the service provided. We written feedback from 2 health and social care professionals. We also spoke with 9 members of staff, 3 managers and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included 3 people’s care records, medication records, staff rotas, training and recruitment records and the provider’s policies and procedures.

Updated 28 March 2023

About the service

Proper Care is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to predominantly older people who may be living with dementia and/or have a physical disability. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting over 50 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 told us they felt safe and were complimentary of the care they received. Comments from people and their relatives included, “I feel safe with them and I know I can talk to [the provider] if I need to, I’m very happy with Proper Care”, “I think they are excellent and would use them again and recommend them” and “I would recommend this agency and I have recommended them to people”.

The services recruitment processes were safe and staff had received appropriate training to enable them to meet people support needs. One person told us, “The carers are very good, they know what to do and they do everything I need”.

The service was experiencing some staffing challenges and there was an ongoing recruitment campaign. The registered and deputy managers were regularly completing care visits. Rotas showed the service had enough staff to provide planned care visits and the registered manger told us the service only took on new packages of care when they had sufficient staff available.

People knew when to expect staff to arrive and the service’s rotas were well organised and included some travel time between consecutive care visits. Staff told us, “I never run late, I take my time and have time to chat.” One person commented, “We do have a rota and generally they stick to it and if the carers are going to be very late they do phone”.

People were supported with the medicines safely and staff understood how to protect people from infection control risks.

Risks in relation to people’s care needs and the environment had been appropriately assessed and local safeguarding procedures were well understood.

People’s needs were assessed by managers before the service agreed to provide support and care plans had been updated promptly in response to reported changes in needs.

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.

The service was well-led and the registered manager and management team provided effective leadership and support to care staff. On call arrangements were effective and staff told us they were well supported.

The providers quality assurance systems were effective and action had bene taken to address and resolve issues identified during our previous inspection.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement. (Published 9 October 2021).

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 10 September 2021. A breach of legal requirements was found in relation to governance. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when.

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, Effective and Well-led.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Proper care 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.