Archived: Pennine Social Care Limited Head Office

Pennine Social Care Limited Head Office is a domiciliary care service. They are registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting people with a variety of care needs including older people and younger people living with family members. Care and support was co-ordinated from the services office which is based in Oldham.

There was a registered manager which oversees services provided from the office. 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.

At the time of our inspection there were 11 people using the service. We spoke on the telephone with four people who used the service and six relatives. We asked people about their experiences of using the agency. People we spoke with told us they were mostly happy with the service provided.

People told us they felt safe in their own homes and staff were available to offer support when needed to help them maintain their independence. People’s needs had been assessed before their care package commenced and some people told us they had been involved in formulating and updating their care plans. We found the information contained in the care records we sampled was individualised and identified people’s needs and preferences, as well as any risks associated with their care and the environment they lived in.

We found people received a service that was based on their personal needs and wishes. Changes in people’s needs were identified and their care package amended to meet their changing circumstances. Where people needed assistance taking their medication this was administered in a timely way by staff who had been trained to carry out this role. We found staff had signed to confirm they had supported/prompted people with their medication. However, we found two people were prescribed creams to prevent pressure sores. Staff confirmed they applied the creams but did not complete a MAR’s when they applied the creams. We raised this with the registered manager, and asked that these items were added to the MAR's.

The recruitment of staff was not sufficiently robust to ensure staff were employed with all of the required employment checks. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

There were sufficient trained staff employed to ensure people received their care consistently. People told us that they received support from mostly the same care workers.

People were able to raise any concerns they may have had. We saw the service user guide included ‘how to make a complaint.’ However, elements of the guide required updating to reflect the current regulations.

People were encouraged to give their views about the quality of the care provided to help drive up standards. However the quality assurance systems had not been effective in identifying areas for improvement. Investigations in relation to complaints were not fully recorded. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.