Archived: Prestige Nursing Ltd

We inspected this service on 28 November 2016. This inspection was announced. This meant the provider and staff knew we would be visiting the service’s office before we arrived. Our last inspection was carried out in August 2013 and at that time the provider was meeting the regulations we inspected. There were 59 people in receipt of personal care support at the time of this inspection visit.

There was no registered manager in post at the time of this inspection. 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 was in the process of advertising for a new manager and had implemented interim support arrangements.

People received their calls as agreed because there was enough staff available to them. However some people did not receive care from a consistent staff team which they told us they would prefer, to ensure the staff understood their routines and preferences. Some staff said they did not know enough about people’s needs before they visited them for the first time.

Staff understood what constituted abuse or poor practice and systems and processes were in place to protect people from the risk of harm. People were protected against the risk of abuse, as checks were made to confirm staff were of good character and suitable to work with them. Medicines were managed safely and people were supported to take their medicine when needed.

People were supported by staff that had received the training they needed to support them. Staff felt supported by the management team and received supervision to monitor their conduct and support their professional development. Staff knew about people’s individual capacity to make decisions and supported people to make their own decisions.

People’s needs were assessed and care plans where developed with people, which directed staff on how to support them in their preferred way. People were supported to maintain a diet that met their dietary requirements and preferences and were supported to access healthcare services.

People knew how to complain and we saw when complaints were made these were responded to in line with the policy. Staff felt listened to and supported. People knew who the manager was and felt the service was well managed. The provider sought the opinions from people who used the service to bring about changes.

Quality monitoring checks were completed by the provider and when needed action was taken to make improvements. The provider understood their responsibilities around their registration with us.

People told us the care they received was good and care workers followed the care plans and acted on their instructions to meet their needs.

One person's representative said 'the care workers go the extra mile. When my relative came out of hospital, the care workers visited to check if there was anything they could help with. They were really wonderful'.

Other comments included 'care workers will help me with my medicines and will ensure I take them safely'. In one area of medicines we found further assessments were required to ensure the continued safety with medication administration.

'Care workers come on time. If they are slightly late it is usually because of traffic. They are reliable and are really good'.

Discussion with the deputy manager and people using the service told us the agency worked well with other services to ensure all needs were being met.

People also told us they had regular contact with the agency and were visited by staff who checked on the care being provided. In this way they were able to comment on the care they received.