- Homecare service
Apex Prime Care Poole
Report from 11 March 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Apex Prime Care Poole is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living in their own homes and flats in the community. 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. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 245 people who were receiving personal care.
The inspection was carried out between 20 June and 9 July 2025. We visited the office on 20, 23 and 26 June 2025. This inspection was prompted by concerns we received about safe care and treatment, including in relation to medicines and moving and handling practice.
We found 2 breaches of regulation in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance.
The principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) were not consistently upheld. The provider lacked effective oversight of the complaints process. The provider failed to submit statutory CQC notifications. The provider confirmed some statutory notifications had inadvertently been saved to draft rather than being submitted electronically. Notifications are important because they support us to monitor the services we regulate. Care plans and risk assessments were not always person-centred or sufficiently detailed to guide staff in delivering the correct support. Governance systems were not always operating effectively as they did not identify the shortfalls within this inspection.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the shortfalls we identified during the inspection.
People were involved in their care. Staff were kind and caring, taking into consideration people’s unique differences. Staff found the registered manager to be approachable.
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.
People's experience of this service
We received mixed feedback from people about the quality and safety of care they received. Some people and their relatives told us the care felt rushed, and staff did not stay the full and planned duration of their visits, whilst others praised staff and did not raise concerns about the length of time staff stayed. Comments included, “Some staff are ok and others almost indifferent”, “Some staff are better than others with knowledge and communication that is non-existent”, “Staff are very kind”, and “Staff are absolutely wonderful. I have a nice relationship and good banter with staff.” The provider offered various services to people. These included short term support and a service designed to support people return home after a hospital stay.