Archived: Prosper Community Care

Updated 7 November 2020

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of three inspectors.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection, including action plans sent by the provider. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited the provider’s registered premises and also a satellite office that we believed was being used to direct care. The provider has since applied to CQC to register the satellite office. We spoke with four people using the service and relatives of four people using the service. We also spoke with five care workers, the office administrator and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records including care and support plans of three people, recruitment and training records of staff and a variety of records relating to the management of the service including policies and procedures.

Updated 7 November 2020

About the service

Prosper Community Care is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes in the Trafford area of Greater Manchester. At the time of our inspection they were supporting 56 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

We found some people’s care plans did not include all the information needed for care workers to support people safely. People we spoke with told us they felt safe and that the registered manager was responsive to any concerns raised. People told us they saw regular care workers and felt protected from the risk of infection by the care workers. People were supported to take medicines at the appropriate times.

Governance systems in the service were not being operated effectively to ensure compliance with regulations and to assess and improve the quality and safety of the service. The registered manager had provided CQC with an action plan detailing improvements they were making but we found many of these had not been completed. The registered manager encouraged an open culture and people felt able to speak to him.

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 31 July 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulations. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection enough improvement had not been made/ sustained and the provider was still in breach of regulations. The service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the management of pressure area care and recruitment practices in the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Prosper Community Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified breaches in relation to the information available to care workers about how to support people safely, robust governance and quality processes, staff training records and recruitment records held by the service. We have written to the provider requesting further evidence to demonstrate their compliance with regulations.

Follow up

The provider is already making changes to their service. We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss progress against their action plan. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.