APC Care Limited

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults, people who may be living with dementia and younger adults. At the time of this inspection the agency provided personal care to 16 people.

Not everyone using APC Care Limited receives regulated activity; 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.

At the time of this inspection there was no 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. A manager had recently joined the agency and had applied to us to become the registered manager for the agency. We had received their application to register with us.

We did not find any breaches of regulations at this inspection but have rated the 'Well-led' key question as 'Requires improvement' due to the historic and current lack of continuity in the management of the service which had resulted in some people experiencing an inconsistent service.

People were safeguarded by a staff team with awareness and understanding of how to report concerns of abuse to appropriate professionals. People were given medicines safely and records were held of the care provided to people. The provider engaged with healthcare professionals as appropriate.

People were involved in the planning of their care and independence was promoted where possible. Consent was sought from people before services were provided to them. Risks to people were assessed and action taken to mitigate risk. The risks of infection were reduced with infection control measures which included the appropriate use of protective equipment such as gloves and aprons. There were enough staff to provide support to people. The care manager was recruiting additional staff to ensure that people received a consistent service from regular staff.

Care staff received training and support from the management team to support them in their roles. Care staff were observed to provide care safely and appropriately to people. Privacy and dignity was maintained by caring and dedicated staff.

People and care staff views were sought regarding the service provided and people were confident to use the complaints process when this may be required. Complaints were investigated and responded to appropriately.

Improvements had been made to the quality and safety of the service following the termination of the former franchise contract.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found