The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has downgraded the rating of Premier Care Limited Specialised Services in Old Trafford, Manchester, from requires improvement to inadequate and placed the service into special measures to protect people.
Premier Care Limited Specialised Services is a supported living service providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service was supporting six people at the time of inspection.
CQC carried out this inspection in October and November to follow up on concerns raised by the local authority about standards of care and the safety of people using the service. During this inspection, there were breaches of regulation regarding person centred care, the need for consent, safe care and treatment, staffing, and how the service is managed.
Following this inspection, CQC has rated the areas of safe, effective and well-led as inadequate. Caring and responsive are rated as requires improvement.
The service has been placed in special measures which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while Premier Care Limited Specialised Services make improvements. Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by, and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen.
Andy Peck, CQC deputy director of operations in the north-west, said:
“When we returned to Premier Care Limited, it was disappointing to see a deterioration in the quality of care being provided. Continued poor leadership and ineffective risk management meant people were receiving unsafe care. The local authority wasn’t confident that leaders were managing safeguarding matters effectively to keep people safe.
“The new management team knew improvements were needed and had started working on these, but it was too early to see these embedded or sustained. Staff reported a culture of bullying under the previous management team and the impact this had on the quality of care they were able to provide.
“Leaders didn’t ensure people’s care plans were accurate or up to date meaning staff weren’t able to support or understand their conditions which placed them at risk of harm. When specific health needs were identified, records failed to explain how support should be delivered.
“People with learning disabilities and autism had no action plans in place for staff to support them and we saw no evidence of people being assisted to access GPs and other health professionals.
“However, it was positive to hear that people had enjoyed a holiday to Wales with the support of staff. People gave positive feedback about hardworking, kind and caring support workers.
“We have told leaders where we expect to see rapid, and continued improvements and will continue to monitor the service closely to keep people safe while that happens. We will return to check on their progress and won’t hesitate to use our regulatory powers if people still aren’t receiving the care they have a right to expect.”
Inspectors found:
- Premier Care Limited didn’t involve people in the development of their care plans and assessments of their needs.
- Previous leaders hadn’t ensured staff received the level of training and support required to work safely.
- Staff reported poor support from office staff in relation to accidents, incidents and concerns until recent changes were introduced.
- The houses inspected were unclean. Leaders implemented cleaning schedules in all houses following the inspection.
- Premier Care Limited didn’t always manage or administer people’s medicines safely.
- Leaders didn’t always detect and control potential risks in people’s homes to keep them safe.