Premier Care Blackburn Branch

Updated 3 June 2024

Date of assessment: 12 October 2024 to 17 October 2024. We undertook the assessment in response to concerns about how the service dealt with safeguarding issues, and managing people's health needs. The service was performing well following the introduction of a new management structure. We found that processes around safeguarding people and learning from incidents had improved and staff were more confident about reporting concerns. Following the last inspection, improvements had been made in the management of medicines, recruitment and the quality of people's care plans and risks assessments; the service was no longer in breach of the legal regulations. There were enough staff to meet people's needs, however at times staff struggled to reach service users on time due to issues such as traffic and staff sickness. Care plans were person centred and contained a good amount of detail so that staff knew people's needs and preferences. This was an improvement following the last inspection and the service was no longer in breach of the legal regulation. Staff had completed a number of relevant training courses recently which they commented had improved their knowledge and skills. Staff enjoyed their jobs and were committed to meeting people's needs effectively. The manager listened to staff and people well, and there were processes to ask people for their feedback. The service had access to a specialist health team at provider level that could support and guide staff to help manage people's complex health needs. There were robust governance procedures in place, and managers were aware of risk. Staff felt confident about raising issues and felt they would be listened to. Improvements had been made following the last inspection around following policies, and managers were better at monitoring performance and outcomes; the service was no longer in breach of the legal regulation. The manager conducted audits and took action to make improvements when required.

Updated 3 June 2024

People and relatives gave positive feedback about staff and the service. People were generally happy with their care and knew how to raise concerns if required. Some people had consistent staff that they knew well, and other people told us that improvements could be made with the consistency of staff. At times staff did not always stay for the required length of time, often due to issues such as traffic and staff needing to cover a wide geographical area. The management team were aware of this and planned to make improvements in conjunction with recruiting more staff. People and relatives told us they were involved in planning their care. They commented that staff were courteous and always introduced themselves, and explained what they were doing. People said staff were caring, and those that had regular staff said staff knew them well. A relative said, "The carers are all very nice, [my relative] seems very happy with them. My [relative] was very reluctant to have help and the carers have all tried to make [my relative] as comfortable as possible. The majority of carers are regular and [my relative] seems to like them all."