Apex Prime Care - Portsmouth

Updated 3 March 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector and one Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Apex Prime Care- Portsmouth is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 3 February 2023 and ended on 15 February 2023. We visited the location’s office on 3 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we held about the service since the last inspection. 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 (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 12 people who use the service and 5 relatives. We spoke with the registered manager, 1 care co-ordinator and 5 members of care staff. We reviewed a range of records including 10 people’s care records, 6 staff recruitment files, audits, policies and medication records.

Updated 3 March 2023

About the service

Apex Prime Care - Portsmouth is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to older and younger adults who require this due to illness, disability, learning disabilities or autism. At the time of our inspection, the agency was providing care to 96 people living in Portsmouth and the surrounding areas.

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

Following the last inspection the provider implemented an action plan to make the required improvements. At this inspection we found there were improvements in the management of risks to people and in their system to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided.

People and their relatives were positive in the feedback they gave about the service. One person told us, “I am very definitely safe with them [carers], they are a big help and always come in with a smile.” Another said, “My family feel confident that I am safe, I am quite happy with the service.”

There were systems in place to protect people from the risk of abuse. Staff understood safeguarding procedures and were aware of how to raise a concern. Risks to people were regularly assessed and reviewed, with appropriate measures in place to minimise risk. Staff were recruited safely and there were enough staff to meet the needs of people receiving care from the service. When needed, medicines were administered by staff who had received training to do so. People were supported by staff who had received infection prevention and control training and had access to necessary PPE.

Quality assurance systems were in place and monitored regularly by the registered manager to review the quality of the service provided to people, for example, audits of care records and concerns. Feedback was sought from people who used the service and any lessons learnt were shared appropriately. The service worked with external professionals to support joined up care provision.

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 21 January 2020) 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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.