Archived: Platinum Care For You Ltd

Platinum Care for You is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to older people and younger adults in their own homes. Some of these people were living with dementia. At the time of our inspection 119 people were receiving personal care.

People's experience of using this service:

Overall people told us they felt safe with staff. The manager and staff knew their responsibilities in relation to keeping people safe from the risk of abuse. Care plans contained risk assessments and risks to people's health and wellbeing were addressed and mitigated. Robust recruitment processes were utilised to prevent unsuitable staff from being employed.

People's needs were assessed prior to receiving a service including their protected characteristics under the Equalities Act 2010. 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. Staff were appropriately trained.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The service had an effective system in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided. Staff told us there was an open culture where they were kept informed about any changes to their role. Staff and people told us the registered manager was approachable. The provider worked in partnership with health and social care professionals to improve their service.

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

Rating at last inspection:

At the previous inspection in November 2018 the service was rated Good in all areas. At this inspection we found the rating remained the same.

Why we inspected:

We received concerns in relation to the management of the service. As a result we undertook a focussed inspection to review the key questions of Safe, Effective and Well Led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the Well Led sections of this full report. The overall rating for the service has remained as good.

Follow up:

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

Platinum Care For You Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to children, younger adults and older people living in their own homes, including people with learning and physical disabilities, eating disorders, mental health conditions, sensory impairments and substance misuse problems. It operates across Coventry and Warwickshire in the West Midlands.

There were 147 people using the service at the time of this inspection who were in receipt of the regulated activity personal care.

At our last comprehensive inspection of this service in December 2015, we rated the service as 'Good'. At this inspection, we found the service provided continued to be safe, effective, caring. responsive and well-led. The rating remains Good.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run. The provider is also the registered manager for the service and is referred to as the provider throughout this report.

People were supported by care workers they knew and who had the skills and training to meet their needs. Care workers were recruited safely to ensure they were of suitable character to support people who used the service. Where people required support to take prescribed medicines, care workers had received training to assist people safely. However, information about people’s prescribed medicines was not always available to care workers and some medicine records had omissions. Action was taken to address this.

There were enough care workers to provide all planned care visits within the expected time scales. People received care which protected them from avoidable harm and abuse. Care workers understood people’s needs and knew how to protect them from the risk of abuse. Risks associated with people’s planned care were identified and plans were in place to inform care workers how to manage risks.

The management team and care workers worked within the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. People were involved in making decisions and choices about how they wanted to live their lives.

People were supported by a team of regular care workers who they described as caring. Care workers respected people's privacy and dignity and promoted their independence.

People were provided with care and support which was individual to them. Care plans were personalised and provided guidance for care workers about how to support each person in the way they preferred. People’s care and support needs were kept under review and staff responded when there were changes in these needs. Where required, people were supported to have sufficient to eat and drink and to access health care professional when needed.

People and relatives were complimentary about the service they received and the way the service was managed. Care workers felt supported and valued by the management team who were always available to give advice. The provider had systems to monitor the quality and safety of service provided. However, some checks were not effective. Action was taken to address this.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We visited the offices of Platinum Care For You on 14 December 2015. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

The service has a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People felt safe using the service and care workers understood how to protect people from abuse. There were processes to minimise risks to people’s safety; these included procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care and checks on care workers to ensure their suitability to work with people who used the service.

The managers understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), and care workers respected people’s decisions and gained people’s consent before they provided personal care.

There were enough care workers to deliver the care and support people required. Most people had consistent care workers who stayed long enough to complete the care people required, although two people said some care workers rushed to finish and move on to the next person.

Care workers received an induction when they started working for the service and completed training to support them in meeting people’s needs effectively. People told us care workers were caring and had the right skills to provide the care and support they required.

Care plans and risk assessments contained relevant information for staff to help them provide the personalised care people required. People knew how to complain and information about making a complaint was available for people. Care workers said they could raise any concerns or issues with the managers, knowing they would be listened to and acted on.

There were processes to monitor the quality of the service provided and understand the experiences of people who used the service. This was through regular communication with people and staff, returned surveys, spot checks on care workers and a programme of other checks and audits.

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