Perfect Care - Gateshead

Updated 6 December 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of 1 inspector and 2 Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

Registered Manager This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 28 October 2022 and ended on 22 November 2022. We visited the location’s office on 28 October 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 12 July 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We contacted the local authority for feedback about the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited the office and spoke to the registered manager and regional director. We spoke to 13 people who use the service and 16 relatives of people who use the service. We spoke to 11 staff members including office staff and care workers. We reviewed documents including people’s care and medicines records, staff training and recruitment records.

Updated 6 December 2022

About the service

CCS Gateshead is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 165 people using the service. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. 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.

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

Medicines had not always been managed safely; medicines documents were not always completed correctly and medicines audits had not identified the issues. The provider introduced a new electronic system during the inspection which included functionality to identify errors in the future.

Risks to people's safety were assessed however, care plans were not regularly reviewed which meant some information was out of date.

Staff were recruited safely and staff were suitably trained to carry out their roles. People told us staff did not always wear masks when caring for them. Staff received regular training, supervision and appraisal.

Systems were in place to safeguard people from abuse. People told us they felt safe with their carers although sometimes they had different carers which they were less happy about.

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. People received personalised support based on their needs and preferences.

The registered manager and provider had governance systems in place. Lessons were learnt from incidents and a continuous improvement plan was in place.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 15 December 2020).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to late or missed calls. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for CCS Gateshead on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.