Archived: FMP Priority Care Services Limited

Updated 14 September 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: The inspection team consisted of two adult social care inspectors and an expert by experience who made phone calls to people or relatives in their home. 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: FMP Priority Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care to people living in their own homes.

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: We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Inspection site visit activity started on 25 February 2019 and ended on 26 February 2019. We visited the office location on 26 February 2019 to see the manager and to review care records and policies and procedures. Phone calls to people and their relatives were made on the 25 February 2019.

What we did: We reviewed the information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider had completed a Provider Information Return (PIR) on 9 May 2018. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. This information was used to plan our inspection and was taken into account when we made judgements in this report.

We looked at three people’s care files and three staff files to review recruitment, training and supervision records. We looked at records of accidents, incidents, complaints and compliments and reviewed audits, quality assurance reports and surveys.

We spoke with the registered manager/provider and two care staff. People who used the service were unable to share their views with us over the telephone but we did speak with seven relatives over the phone.

Updated 14 September 2019

About the service: FMP Priority Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency that was providing personal care to 11 people living in their own home at the time of the inspection. This included older people and people living with a dementia or a physical disability.

People’s experience of using this service: Risks to people’s health were not always assessed to provide staff with the necessary guidance on how to keep people safe. Medicines were not always managed safely and quality checks had not picked up on areas where improvement was needed. The provider was not ensuring that staff had the qualifications, skills and experience to provide care safely.

New staff had not completed a full programme of training. The registered manager had an understanding of mental capacity, and people’s rights around making their own decisions. However, they were not correctly recording capacity assessments or best interest decisions.

Complaints were not being correctly recorded and one relative was not happy with the way their complaint was handled.

The service’s internal systems had failed to identify the issues we found on our visit. People and their relatives had not been regularly asked for feedback on the service.

Staff were kind and patient and people were involved in decisions about their care.

People received care that was personalised to them but care plans were not always up to date or accurate.

We identified four breaches of the Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 around safe care, fit and proper persons employed, complaints and governance. Details of action we have asked the provider to take can be found at the end of this report.

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

Full information about CQC's regulatory response to the more serious concerns found in inspections and appeals is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Rating at last inspection: This was the service’s first inspection since becoming registered on 30 November 2017.

Why we inspected: This inspection was a scheduled inspection carried out in line with our inspection programme timescales.

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