Principle Support Ltd

Updated 27 April 2023

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people and staff.

Inspection team

One inspector and an Expert by Experience carried out the inspection. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to relatives.

Service and service type

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

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 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 short notice of the inspection in order for the registered manager to provide us with the documentation we needed to look at.

Inspection activity started on 30 March 2023 and ended on 13 April 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 6 people’s family members and obtained feedback from 4 members of staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included 3 people’s care records and various medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as phone and video calls to enable us to engage with people and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.

Updated 27 April 2023

About the service

The service is a domiciliary care agency, providing care and support to people living independently in the community or with their families. There were 11 people receiving care and support from the provider at the time of the inspection.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

Staff provided support to identify people’s aspirations and goals and assist people to plan how these would be met. There was an ethos of supporting people to develop new skills and achieve independence where possible. Staff demonstrated pride in understanding people’s strengths and promoted what they could do.

Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision making.

Right Care

People could communicate easily with staff as staff understood their individual communication styles and had received appropriate training.

Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people’s cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care. Staff exhibited a good understanding of the need to uphold people’s privacy and dignity.

Staff understood how to protect people from abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and were confident about how to apply it.

People could take part in activities and keep in touch with people who were important to them. They were supported to develop and maintain meaningful friendships and relationships in the wider community, including at specialist day centres and with friends and families.

Right culture

The service had enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service.

Feedback was regularly sought from people, and relatives told us they found the provider easy to engage with. A smaller number of relatives told us they did not feel local managers responded to them in a timely manner. We raised this with the registered person who told us they would make this a focus of meetings with local managers going forward to ensure any concerns were identified and addressed.

Staff and managers ensured the quality and safety of the service had been fully assessed to ensure people were safe. Safe recruitment practices were followed. Staff knew and understood people well. People received good quality care, support and treatment because appropriately trained staff could meet their needs and wishes.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published January 2018)

The overall rating for the service remains good based on the findings of this inspection. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Principle Support Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support right care right culture.

Follow up

We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.