About the service:

Prudent Health Care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to adults. The office is based in Oldbury, Birmingham. The service provides care and support varying from short visits to 24 hours a day support.

People’s experience of using this 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 supported this practice. We discussed the principles of the MCA and consent with the management team and found they had a good awareness in accordance with domiciliary services.

People supported by the service and their relatives told us the staff who supported them were polite, reliable, caring and professional in their approach to their work. They spoke positively about the quality of service provided. One relative told us, “The staff are good, caring people. We couldn’t wish for any better."

People’s care and support had been planned in partnership with them. The management team told us, “Right from our first meeting, which is just an introductory meeting, we reassure people, our aim is to support people to be as independent as possible.”

The service worked in partnership with healthcare professionals and families to ensure people’s health care needs were met. People were supported to attend healthcare appointments to ensure their health and wellbeing was maintained.

Staff spoken with told us they were supported by the management to do their job, we are always told the people we are caring for comes first.

Safeguarding policies and procedures were in place and the management understood the actions to take should there be any incidents.

The management team used a variety of methods to assess and monitor the quality of the service. This enabled Prudent Health Care to continually monitor the service an identify areas where improvements can be made.

Rating at last inspection: Good (Report published 13 April 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. Ongoing monitoring included information that quality had improved. We checked this in looking at the quality and safety of the service.

Follow up: The next scheduled inspection will be in keeping with the overall rating. We will continue to monitor information we receive from and about the service. We may inspect sooner if we receive concerning information about the service.

The inspection took place on 17 February 2016 and was announced. This was because the service provides domiciliary care and we wanted to make sure that staff would be available. This was the first inspection of the service.

Prudent Health Services Ltd is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. The service currently provides support to four people.

There was a registered manager at the service. 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. However, on the day of the inspection, the registered manager was unavailable for most of the day and so the deputy manager of the service supported us through the inspection.

People were supported with their medication. However, guidelines on how prescribed creams should be applied were not always clear.

There was a lack of quality assurance systems in place to ensure that the quality of the service is maintained.

Staff knew how to recognise abuse and the actions to take if they suspected someone was at risk of harm.

There were suitable numbers of staff who ensured that people received their calls on time and were notified if they were running late. People were supported to have the same carer wherever possible.

Staff were provided with the training and support required to enable them to support people effectively.

People told us that staff sought their consent in line with the Mental Capacity Act (2005).

People who required support with meals were given choice in what they eat. Staff had a good understanding of how to meet people’s dietary requirements.

Staff knew people’s healthcare needs and knew the action to take if people were feeling unwell.

People and their relatives told us that staff were kind and caring. People told us that staff encouraged them to be independent and respect their dignity.

People were supported to be involved in their care. People were able to take part in their assessment and care planning and were given regular opportunities to state if they wanted any aspect of their care changing.

People and their relatives knew how to make complaints and were confident that any concerns raised would be acted on by the registered manager.

The registered manager sought feedback from people in order to assess people’s satisfaction with the service and make improvements if required.