Person Centred Care Company

Updated 2 September 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 team was made up of 1 inspector and 1 regulatory coordinator. A regulatory coordinator works alongside inspectors within the Integrated Assessment and Inspection Teams.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. 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.

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 it is a small service and we needed to be sure the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 19 July 2023 and ended on 21 July 2023. We spoke with people using the service, their relatives, and staff on 20 July 2023. We visited the location’s office on 19 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. 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 reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from professionals who work with the service and Healthwatch, Sheffield. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 people and 2 of their relatives about their experience of the care provided. We met with the registered manager. We spoke with 4 care workers.

We looked at written records, which included 3 people’s care records and 4 staff files. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found. This included reviewing policies and procedures.

Updated 2 September 2023

About the service

Person Centred Care Company is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care to adults with a range of support needs. There were 9 people using the service at the time of this inspection.

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

Significant improvements had been made since our last inspection. However, there were still not enough effective quality assurance processes in place to evidence appropriate checks had been made and any issues addressed.

Safe recruitment procedures made sure staff were of suitable character and background. There were enough staff deployed to meet people’s care and support needs in a timely way. There were systems in place to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed.

Staff told us they were provided with an induction and relevant training to make sure they had the right skills and knowledge for their role. Staff said they enjoyed working for Person Centred Care Company and they felt supported in their jobs. Care records provided enough information to enable staff to meet people’s needs and preferences, and to manage risks. Staff competency was checked by the registered manager.

People told us staff were caring and respectful in their interactions with them. From our conversations it was clear staff knew people well. 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.

People were encouraged to maintain good health and have access to health and social care services. The registered manager liaised with other health and social care professionals to discuss any changes and updates to people's care and support needs.

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 3 August 2021) and there were breaches of regulations. 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 some improvements had been made, however the provider remained in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 16 July 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve the management of risk, medicines management, staff support, recruitment practices and the governance of the service.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions of Safe, Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements.

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 remained as requires improvement. 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 Person Centred Care Company on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to the governance of the service.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.