Premier Community

Updated 19 July 2019

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

One inspector carried out this inspection with an expert by experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

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

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission, however, they were not working in the service at the time of our inspection. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave seven days’ notice of the inspection because some of the people using it could not consent to a home visit or a phone call from an inspector. This meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection-

We spoke with five people and nine relatives on the telephone and visited three people with two relatives in their home. At the registered office we spoke with four staff, the Head of Community Innovation, the Business Services Manager and Quality Service Manager. We received feedback from three social care professionals.

We reviewed a range of records which included people’s care records and risk assessments. Medicine records and daily log sheets. We also reviewed the records which detailed when people had their support visits, quality monitoring visits and records relation to the management of the service.

Updated 19 July 2019

About the service

Premier Care is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to younger adults and older people in and around Ilkeston. The service currently provides a service for 252 people.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

Risks to people’s health and wellbeing were assessed and plans were in place to monitor people and to assist them in a safe manner. Staff knew how to support people safely, including using equipment to assist them to move. Staff were supported and trained to ensure that they had the skills to support people effectively. They understood how to protect people from harm and were confident that any concerns would be reported and investigated by the management team.

Where people received assistance to take medicines, records were kept in order that this was done safely. When people required assistance to eat and drink, the provider ensured that this was planned to meet their preferences and assessed need.

Support was now planned in local teams and the provider had made improvements in staffing to ensure people received their care from a small team of staff who they knew well. Care was planned and reviewed, and the provider ensured that people and their relative’s choices were followed. People’s privacy and dignity were respected and upheld by the staff who supported them.

People had caring relationships with the staff who supported them. The provider had built relationships with other health and social care professionals to ensure that people were supported to maintain good health.

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 felt able to make choices about their care and how they were supported.

There was a complaints procedure in place and any received were investigated and responded to. There were other systems in place to monitor and drive improvement such as audits. People were asked for their feedback on the quality of the service and their contribution supported the development of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection.

This service was registered with us in November 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection.

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.