Posa Care Solutions Limited

This service had not been inspected since their registration; therefore, we assessed all quality statements across the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. As a result of our inspection, we rated the service as requires improvement as we found 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to the management of people’s medicines, staff recruitment and the service’s record keeping and governance systems.

Whilst people raised no concerns about the care being provided to them, we found the registered manager had not always documented people’s care and medicines requirements in detail. This meant staff did not have access to detailed information about people’s medicines and support needs, putting people at risk of receiving inappropriate care and medicines.

The registered manager knew people well and was able to monitor the quality of care being provided through their involvement and promptly act on any concerns. However, this approach has not been effective in identifying some shortfalls in people’s care records, medicines and the recruitment of staff. Effective monitoring systems were required to identify shortalls and to demonstrate the effectiveness and integration of actions taken, particularly as the service aimed to expand.

Robust recruitment practices were not being used. The registered manager had carried out checks of staff’s previous employment and criminal checks. However, we found there was limited recorded evidence the registered manager had explored any gaps or discrepancies in staff employment histories and health checks.

However, a service manager had recently been employed to support the registered manager in developing the service and drive improvement. However, further time was needed for the service manager to embed their governance strategies.

There were enough staff to support people, and staff had been inducted and trained before they started to carry out their role.

Staff were complimentary about the registered manager and felt supported and trained to carry out their role. The culture of the service was open, transparent and it was clear the registered manager and staff genuinely cared for the people they supported.

People were positive about the care they received and felt staff were aware of their support needs and preferences, People and relatives were involved in planning and deciding upon how they wanted their support to be provided, and these choices were respected.

At the time of the assessment, we asked the provider to take immediate action to address risks relating to people’s medicines due to the risk of people not receiving their medicines as required.

We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.