Protective Care Group Limited

Protective Care Group LTD is a service providing support and personal care to children and vulnerable adults with complex needs. The service is registered as a care at home service. Staff support children who live with their family and children who live on their own.

At the time of inspection 9 people were using the service. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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. 1 person was receiving personal care at the time of inspection.

The provider was also registered with Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted). Ofsted inspect services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. They also inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

Although people were supported by a core staff team that knew them well, we found issues in the recruitment processes for new staff. The provider had identified these issues prior to our inspection and were making improvements.

People's physical and emotional needs had been assessed to make sure they received the right support. Staff had access to detailed risk assessments which guided them on how to reduce risks to people, whilst promoting their independence. 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 who may experience behaviours of distress were supported with clear plans that recognised the triggers and signs of emotional distress, and how they would like to be supported. Relatives told us people experienced less behaviours of distress when being supported by staff as their needs were fully understood.

People were supported with the safe administration of their medicines.

People's care outcomes, goals and life aspirations had been recorded so staff had a good understanding of the person as an individual and what they would like to achieve from their care. The care goals people had set were reviewed regularly to make sure they were current.

Detailed care records were kept for people and other care agencies to refer to, this helped staff and other agencies to keep up to date on people’s care needs.

Right Care

People were provided with care tailored to their individual needs. Staff spoke positively about their caring role and were passionate about providing good quality care. The service was led by a registered manager and team manager who valued people as individuals.

People were provided with dignified care which respected their privacy and promoted their independence. When people’s care needs changed, this was pre-empted by staff and their care was adjusted to meet these needs.

People were protected from the spread of infection by staff.

Care plans were made with people, their relatives, and professionals to ensure that staff fully understood people’s care needs. People’s equality, diversity and inclusion needs were fully explored and supported by staff. People's communication needs had been assessed, this supported staff in their interactions with people whilst providing care and support.

Right Culture

The service worked with other professionals to meet people’s needs and we received positive feedback. However, at the time of inspection, the provider had not communicated with professionals about concerns involving a child’s safety and care.

People were empowered to live a life of their choice by the staff supporting them. People were supported by a service which valued and promoted people's individuality, independence, and human rights. Policies and care planning supported this culture.

The management team encouraged an open learning culture where good practice was celebrated, and lessons were learnt. There was an open and honest culture between people, relatives, staff and leaders, where they all felt confident to raise concerns and complaints.

Staff felt supported in their caring roles and adopted the caring values of the organisation.

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 on 22 February 2022 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement

We have identified a breach in relation to the consistent safe recruitment of new staff at the service at this inspection.

We have made a recommendation about provider communication with safeguarding professionals.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and Local Authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.