People's Choice UK

People's Choice UK is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to people living with dementia, people with a physical disability, older people and people with sensory impairments. Their office is based in Bedford. At the time of our inspection visit there were 34 people receiving a service of personal care.

Not everyone using People's Choice UK receives the regulated activity of personal care. 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.

Peoples experience of using this service:

Appropriate steps had been taken to safeguard people. Risks to people were identified and managed well. The provider had maintained safe staff recruitment processes. There were enough suitable staff. Competent staff administered and managed people’s medicines safely. Infection control systems promoted good hygiene standards.

Staff were provided with the necessary support to carry out their role and staff received training to maintain and develop their skills. People's needs were met. One relative told us how impressed they were with staff's skills. People's independence was upheld and promoted with enough to eat and drink as well as accessing healthcare support. 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 were cared for by staff with compassion, kindness and dignity. Staff knew people well and they promoted people’s privacy, cultural needs and independence. People had a say and choice in who and how their care was provided. One person told us, "It is the little things staff do which make the biggest difference to me."

The registered manager promoted and supported an honest and open staff team culture. Staff upheld the provider's values by helping people live a meaningful life. Audits, quality assurance systems and oversight of the service was effective in driving improvements. People received good quality care. People had a say in how the service was run. The management team worked well with other organisations. People, relatives and staff were unanimous in recommending the service to others.

The last rating for this service was good (published 3 December 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

The service had a registered manager 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were protected from harm or abuse by staff that were aware of the principles of safeguarding and reporting procedures. Risk assessments were in place and risks to people were managed appropriately. Accidents and incidents were recorded should these arise, and the cause analysed, so that preventative action could be taken to reduce the risk of reoccurrence. Staffing levels were sufficient to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Robust recruitment processes were in place. Safe arrangements were in place for the administration, recording and management of medicines.

There was regular staff training and supervision to ensure that staff had the right skills and knowledge for their roles. The CQC is required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and to report on what we find. We found that people who used the service had capacity to make day-to-day decisions and gave consent before any support was provided by staff. People were provided with nutritional support if this was an assessed part of their package of care.

People were content with the care they received from staff. They were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff understood people’s privacy and dignity needs. They were respectful of the decisions people made.

People had their support needs assessed and reviewed on a regular basis, so that staff knew how to support them to maintain their independence. Care plans contained person centred information. The service had systems to obtain people’s feedback and provide them with opportunities to raise concerns.

There was an open and positive culture at the service, with a clear set of values which people, staff and the management all worked towards. Quality control systems were in place to ensure care was delivered to a high standard and identify areas for development.

We also found that the provider had failed to ensure that people had accurate and up-to-date person-centred care plans in place. Staff did not have the information they needed to provide people with individualised care and records were accurately maintained. Care plans and daily notes were not reviewed regularly to ensure they were an accurate reflection of people's care and support needs.

We asked the provider to submit an action plan to tell us how they would meet these regulations in the future; they stated that they would be meeting them by 30 March 2016. During this inspection we returned to see if the service had made the improvements they stated in their action plan. We found that the provider was now meeting these regulations.

We undertook this focused inspection on 12 April 2016 to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for People's Choice UK on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

During our previous inspection on 19 November 2015

People's Choice UK is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes in and around the town of Bedford. When we inspected the service was providing 22 people with care and support.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

Improvements had been made to the risk assessments carried out by the service. Risk assessments had been carried out for each person and showed how risk levels had been calculated. They also provided staff with control measures which detailed how they could work to reduce the impact of risks on people's health, safety and well-being.

There had also been improvements made regarding people's care plans and records. Care plans were more person-centred and were reviewed and updated regularly to ensure they were accurate. Records such as daily notes were collected regularly and reviewed to identify trends and update care plans if necessary.