4 May 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Premier Care – Salford Homecare Branch is a domiciliary care service who provide care and support to over 380 people living in their own accommodation within the Salford area. Premier Care is the main provider for the local authority in 4 of the 5 areas of Salford which are Swinton & Walkden, Little Hulton, Broughton and Ordsall.
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. At the time of inspection, 360 people received personal care and were included in the inspection.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We found improvements were required with consistency in the timing and duration of care visits and audit and governance processes. Care staff often arrived earlier or later than planned and did not always remain as long as scheduled. There was also a lack of travel time provided between visits, which also affected staff’s ability to be punctual. There was a lack of audits and monitoring processes being completed within the service. What was in place had not identified a number of the issues we noted during the inspection.
The majority of people we spoke with told us they received safe care, especially when supported by their regular carer. Staff told us they were provided with training in safeguarding. However, records showed training completion rates required improvement. The provider was aware of this, and a plan was in place. New staff had been recruited safely, with all necessary safety checks completed. Risks to people had been assessed, with information in care plans on how these would be minimised as much as possible. Overall, medicines were being managed safely, though some issues we noted had not been identified through the audit process.
We have made a recommendation about medicines auditing.
People and relatives provided mixed feedback about communication with the service and involvement in their care. Some told us communication was good, any concerns were addressed, and they were periodically asked for their views about their care and if they were happy with this. However, others told us they had never been asked for feedback and had not received responses when concerns had been raised.
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 29 June 2021) 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 the provider remained in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
We carried out a focused inspection of this service in May 2021. Breaches of legal requirement 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 and Well-Led which contain those requirements.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last comprehensive inspection (published December 2017) to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe and Well-Led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Premier Care - Salford Homecare Branch on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation to person centred care and the audit and governance process at this inspection.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.