The Care Quality Commission
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Pinnacle Caring Services Limited

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Unit 4, Parade Enterprise Centre, 14 The Parade, Blacon, Chester, Cheshire, CH1 5HN (01244) 457244

Provided and run by:
Pinnacle Caring Services Ltd

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment: 27 May to 23 June 2025. Pinnacle Caring Services Ltd is a Domiciliary Care Agency (DCA) and provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the assessment the service supported 2 people with live-in care. The service is registered to support older people, people with physical disabilities, mental health conditions and learning disabilities. However, the service did not currently support anyone with a learning disability and the provider had no immediate plans to do so. We considered the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

This was a planned assessment of all quality statements under the key questions of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Since our previous inspection, the provider had implemented some quality monitoring systems. However, these needed to be further strengthened to ensure quality improvements were always identified and actioned. Whilst overall people received their medicines as prescribed, further work was required to ensure record keeping supported the safe administration of medicines. People were supported by staff who were consistent and familiar Whilst staff understood people’s needs and promoted person-centred care, risk assessments and care plans were not always fully up to date and reflective of people’s needs. Some records needed to be more detailed to demonstrate how people had been involved in reviews and decisions about their care. The provider was responsive to our feedback and took some immediate action, however, they needed to proactively identify where improvements were required in future.

The provider worked in partnership with others to ensure people’s needs were assessed and effectively met. Staff undertook relevant training and understood how to safeguard people. People were supported to give feedback and the provider listened and addressed any concerns. The provider promoted a culture of openness and learning. However, they needed to ensure regulatory requirements in relation to notifying CQC of changes within certain staff roles were met. They addressed this straight away following our feedback. At our last inspection the service was in breach of regulations regarding governance. The service had made some improvements but remained in breach of this regulation. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

 

8 October 2019

During a routine inspection

Pinnacle Caring is a domiciliary care service providing 24 hour care and support to people in their own homes. They were providing a service to two people at the time of the inspection.

The service did not have a registered manager. The registered provider had full oversight of the service and supported the inspection process.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The registered provider had not reviewed and kept their policies and procedures up to date to reflect best practice guidance. Audit systems were in place but had not been consistently completed to ensure areas for development and improvement were identified in a timely manner.

Medication was managed safely. Staff who managed medication had completed the required training and had their competency regularly assessed. Staff had access to best practice guidelines to support their practice. Medication administration records (MARs) were fully completed. We have made a recommendation about the auditing of medication.

People were supported by staff that had been safely recruited and had received training to support them in their role. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and people told us regular staff visited them and had got to know them well.

People’s needs were assessed before they were supported by the service. Each person had a care plan that included their preferences and routines. Care plans were person centred and held sufficient information to guide staff on how best to meet people’s needs. People told us staff were kind, caring and attentive. Staff had a clear understanding of how to meet people’s individual needs. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests.

Staff had received training on how to keep people safe. They told us they felt confident to raise any concerns they had about people’s safety.

Staff had received infection control training and followed good practice to minimise the risk of infection being spread. People’s privacy and dignity was respected, and their independence promoted to the full. People spoke positively about the service and the staff that supported them.

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 11 October 2018) and there were two 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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation 18 however; improvements were still required to regulation 17.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.

22 August 2018

During a routine inspection

This inspection was undertaken on 22 and 23 August 2018 and was announced on both days. This was the first inspection since the service had been registered with the Care Quality Commission.

Pinnacle Caring is registered to provide personal care and support to people who live in their own homes. The agency office is based in Blacon, Chester and provides support to people within their local area. At the time of our inspection the service supported 10 people.

The service did not have a registered manager. The service has been without a registered manager for six months. A new manager had been appointed at the time of our inspection but had not commenced work. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers they are 'registered persons'. The registered persons have a legal responsibility to meet the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

During this inspection we found a breach of regulation 17 and 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The registered providers audit systems had failed to identify areas for development and improvement that included DBS check, mandatory refresher training and supervision for staff. In addition, the registered provider had not undertaken regular reviews of daily care records.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

Staff recruitment systems were not consistently robust to ensure only suitable staff were employed to work with the vulnerable people they supported. The service had a high turnover of staff and were undergoing further recruitment at the time of our inspection.

Support and supervision was not consistently undertaken in line with the registered provider’s policy and procedure.

All staff had undertaken an induction which included shadowing more experienced staff at the start of their employment. Staff had all completed essential training however they had not consistently completed refresher training in line with good practice guidelines.

The registered provider had a medicines policy and procedure in place. Staff had all undertaken medicines training however had not all completed annual refresher training in the subject. Staff had not had their medicines competency assessed. We received confirmation that this had been undertaken since our inspection visit.

Staff had a good understanding of safeguarding people from abuse. There were policies, procedures and systems in place to protect people from abuse.

People had their needs assessed prior to them using the service. A care plan and risk assessments were prepared using the information gained through assessments. People's needs that related to age, disability, religion or other protected characteristics were considered throughout the assessment and care planning process. People told us that staff understood their individual needs.

People told us that staff treated them with kindness and were caring. They said that their privacy and dignity was consistently respected.

People told us that staff supported them with their food and drink needs. They described being offered choice and we saw guidance was available for staff to follow to meet people's individual dietary needs.

The registered provider had up-to-date policies and procedures that were available to staff to support their role and employment. Policies included complaints that people and their relatives could follow to raise any concerns or complaints they had.

The Care Quality Commission as required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and report on what we found. We saw that the registered provider had policies and guidance available for staff in relation to the MCA. Staff demonstrated a basic understanding of this and had all completed training.