This comprehensive inspection took place on 11 and 13 September and was our first inspection of the service under its current ownership. We gave two working days’ notice so the service manager could be available and arrangements could be made for us to visit a sample of people who use the service.

Apex Prime Care – Bournemouth is a domiciliary care service that provides care to people in their own homes in the Bournemouth and Poole area. At the time of the inspection, there were 50 people, mostly older adults, who used the service. Most had care packages commissioned by social services, others were NHS or privately funded.

As a condition of its registration the service is required to have a registered manager. The service manager had been managing the service since June 2017 and had applied to register. 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.

The people and relatives we spoke with were consistently positive about the way their care was provided by caring, respectful staff. They told us they could rely on staff arriving around the right time and most had a regular team of staff they had got to know. They said they felt safe with the staff who visited them.

People’s choices and preferences in relation to their care were respected. Their consent to their care was sought and if they were unable to give this, staff followed the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Medicines were managed safely. People’s care records and medicines information contained details of any allergies, although these had not been provided on the medicines administration records (MAR) themselves. MAR were due to be redesigned and the manager agreed to include this information.

People were satisfied with the support they received in relation to cooking, eating and drinking.

Complaints and concerns were investigated and addressed promptly, to people’s satisfaction.

There had been a turnover of care workers, senior and management staff over the summer. Despite this, the staff we met came across as confident and motivated. They acknowledged this had been an unsettled period but were positive about developments at the service. They told us the service manager was fair and approachable.

Staff said they had the training needed for their roles and were well supported through informal supervision. However, due to the shortage in senior staff in recent months, supervision meetings, and spot checks to observe practice had fallen behind. New senior staff were about to start work, and the manager had prioritised the resumption of supervision and spot checks.

Staff had a good understanding of their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding adults. They knew how to report concerns and expressed confidence that any concerns they raised would be listened to and appropriate action taken.