Archived: Phoenix Professional Home Care

Phoenix Professional Home Care is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. At the time of our inspection 31 people were receiving personal care.

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 continued to be cared for safely and with compassion. Staff were appropriately recruited. There were enough staff to provide care and support to people to meet their needs. Medicines systems were well organised, and staff managed people’s medicines safely.

Staff had access to the support, supervision and training they required to work effectively in their roles. Staff supported people to have a healthy balanced diet. People’s support was overseen by a wide variety of health and social care professionals. People had prompt access to healthcare support when needed.

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.

Staff were caring, person centred and had built up trusting relationships with people. People were treated with kindness, dignity and respect and staff spent time getting to know them and their specific needs and wishes.

People had personalised plans of care in place to enable staff to provide consistent care and support in line with people’s personal preferences. Information was provided to people in an accessible format to enable them to make decisions about their care and support. People knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint and the provider had implemented effective systems to manage any complaints received.

The service had a positive ethos and an open culture. The registered manager was approachable, understood the needs of people, and listened to staff. People that used the service and their relatives had the opportunity to feedback on the quality of the support and care provided. Any required improvements were made in response to people's suggestions. There were effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and drive improvements.

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for this service was good (published 20 December 2016).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

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

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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.

The provider and registered manager had values and a clear vision that were person centred and focussed on enabling people to live at home. All staff demonstrated a commitment to providing a service for people that met their individual needs. People had positive relationships with staff.

People were actively involved in decisions about their care and support needs. There were formal systems in place to assess people’s capacity for decision making under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Staff provided people with information to enable them to make an informed decision and encouraged people to make their own choices.

People received safe care and support. Staff understood their role in safeguarding people and they knew how to report concerns. There were enough staff with the right skills and attitudes to meet people’s needs.

Staff had a full understanding of people’s support needs and had the skills and knowledge to meet them. Staff received updates to their training and regular supervisions. Staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities in caring for people and received regular support from the provider.

Care records contained risk assessments and risk management plans to protect people from identified risks. They gave information for staff on the identified risk and informed staff on the measures required to minimise any risks. Staff were vigilant regarding people’s changing health needs and sought guidance from relevant healthcare professionals.

Staff were aware of the importance of managing complaints promptly and in line with the provider’s policy. Staff and people were confident that if they had any concerns they would be listened to and any concerns would be addressed.

The provider monitored the quality and safety of the service and staff regularly monitored the support people received. People and staff were encouraged to provide feedback about the service and it was used to drive continuous improvement.