Archived: Pulse - Birmingham

Updated 3 December 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 6 and 10 October 2016 and was announced and was carried out by one inspector. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice before the inspection to ensure that a manager was available during our inspection. We spoke with five staff during our visit this included the acting manager, operation manger, three case managers, the recruitment officer and a member of the care team. Follow our visit we spoke with five staff and six people who used the service on the telephone to obtain their views about the service provided. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). 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. However the provider had not returned the PIR because the time scale in which the provider was to return the PIR had not expired. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We also reviewed information we held about the service in the form of statutory notifications received from the service and any safeguarding or whistleblowing incidents, which may have occurred. A statutory notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to send us by law. At the time of our inspection, the service was providing support for seven people who lived in the Birmingham area. We reviewed a range of records about people’s care and how the service was managed. These included care records, medicine administration record (MAR) sheets, staff training, support and employment records, and quality assurance audits that the provider used to monitor the service provided.

Updated 3 December 2016

This inspection took place on 6 and 10 October 2016 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice that we would be visiting the service. This was because the service provides domiciliary care and we wanted to make sure staff would be available. At last inspection carried out on 29 October 2015. We found the provider was not meeting the requirements of the regulations inspected. At this inspection we found that improvement had been made and the provider was meeting the requirements of the regulation inspection.

Pules (Birmingham) is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. All care support is provided by staff that have set hours over a 24 hour period so staff and some staff would live in the person own home for the duration of their support

At the time of our inspection there was no registered manager in post this is a requirement of the organisation registration with us. There was an acting manager in post with a view to submitting an application to us to become the registered manager to ensure staff had leadership and someone to discuss issues or seek advice from when needed. 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 had processes and systems in place that kept people safe and protected them from the risk of harm. Staff had received training and understood the different types of abuse and knew what action they would take if they thought a person was at risk of harm.

People had been involved in the planning of their care, make choices about their care and were with their medication when required and were involved in the care and support they received. The provider knew what appropriate action should be taken to protect people’s legal rights.

Staff were trained and supported so that they had the knowledge and skills to enable them to care for people in a way that met their individual needs and preferences. Where appropriate people were supported to access health and social care professionals.

Staff was caring and treated people with dignity and respect and people felt they could speak with the provider about their worries or concerns and felt they would be listened to.

The provider had quality assurance and audit systems in place to monitor the care and support people received to ensure the service remained consistent and effective.