This inspection took place on 29 June, 2, 3, 4 and 5 July 2018 and was announced. The service was rated overall ‘Good’ in October 2016 when we inspected under a previous registration. The provider relocated to a new head office address in May 2017 and this was the first inspection under their new registration.

Premium Care Solutions is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults, younger adults, children, and people with physical and mental disabilities, living in the community throughout the United Kingdom. The service can also provide specialist short term placement care in the heart of Northamptonshire for people with complex needs including ventilation dependency, spinal cord injury, brain injury and tetraplegia.

Not everyone using Premium Care Solutions receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

At the time of our inspection it was confirmed 19 people using the service received ‘personal care’.

A registered manager was in post. 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 registered manager and the provider were fully aware of their legal responsibilities and committed to providing excellent leadership and support to staff. The vision and values of the service in providing high quality person centred care was central to the ethos of the service. People received care and support from a staff team that were inspired and had a positive sense of direction and strong leadership to give people an enhanced quality of life. There was a strong focus on inclusion, positive risk taking, promoting independence and empowerment. The well-being of people was at the heart of everything the service did.

The quality assurance systems were effectively used to monitor and assess the quality of the service to drive continuous improvement. The provider worked in partnership with other healthcare professionals and external agencies to continuously provide a service that was based on best practice.

Staff went the ‘extra mile’ to ensure people lived as fulfilled and enriched lives as possible. The staff respected people’s individuality and enabled people to express their wishes and make choices for themselves. Positive therapeutic relationships had been developed and staff were proud of the support they provided to people and the positive outcomes this achieved for people using the service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service fully supported this practice. People were protected from the risk of harm. Staff had been trained in safeguarding people and understood how to report any concerns of abuse. Risks to people’s safety were fully assessed to ensure they were effectively managed whilst also promoting independence.

People were supported with their medicines in a safe way. People’s nutritional needs were met and they were supported with their health care needs when required. The service worked with other organisations to ensure that people received continuous coordinated care and support.

People were protected by safe recruitment procedures to ensure staff were suitable to work in care services. People were included in the staff recruitment and selection process and their care and support was delivered by hand-picked care workers. Staff received in-depth training for their role and received ongoing support and supervision to work effectively.

The registered manager and staff understood the i