Apex Prime Care – Isle of Wight received an overall rating of Requires Improvement on its first CQC inspection, with Safe and Effective rated Good but Caring, Responsive, and Well-Led all requiring improvement. Key concerns included an unreported safeguarding incident, non-person-centred care plans, unresolved complaints, gaps in staff training records, and ineffective governance systems that failed to identify these issues.
Concerns (7)
criticalSafeguarding: “we identified a potential incident of abuse which the registered manager had not dealt with robustly as a safeguarding concern”
moderatePerson-centred care: “care plans were not person-centered and had a lack of information regarding people's likes, dislikes, interests and past histories”
moderateComplaints handling: “one person had raised the fact that they preferred not to receive care from a staff member...on three occasions. However...they still did not feel the matter had been resolved”
moderateGovernance: “quality audits had not identified the issues raised during the inspection relating to; gaps in staff training, lack of person-centred care planning, responding to people's changing needs”
moderateCommunication with families: “Staff told us they often did not have any information about a new person to the service before turning up at their home to carry out personal care”
moderateLeadership: “Staff also described that team morale as 'low' amongst their colleagues...'It's not as good as it was. The office is much more stressed'”
minorStaff training: “the training matrix showed seven staff members who had not completed all essential training as required by the provider, such as Safeguarding, MCA, and Manual Handling”
Strengths
· People felt safe and trusted staff; safeguarding policies and procedures were in place
· Individual risk assessments were completed and regularly reviewed, including environmental risks
· Appropriate recruitment procedures and pre-employment DBS checks were in place
· Medication administration was managed safely with fully completed records
· Staff received induction including shadowing and ongoing supervision and spot checks
Quality-Statement breakdown (21)
safe: SafeguardingRequires improvement
safe: Risk assessmentGood
safe: Staffing levelsGood
safe: RecruitmentGood
safe: Medication managementGood
safe: Infection controlGood
effective: Mental Capacity ActGood
effective: Staff training and inductionRequires improvement
effective: SupervisionGood
effective: Healthcare accessGood
caring: Kindness and compassionRequires improvement
caring: Privacy and dignityGood
caring: IndependenceGood
caring: Cultural and diversity needsGood
responsive: Responding to changing needsRequires improvement