A DOMICILIARY care home has made it three in a row after earning another ‘good’ rating following an inspection from the care watchdog.

Apex Prime Care, based in Russell House, East Street, was visited by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on November 21 and 22.

A report published last week showed that the service, which provides personal care for people in their homes, was rated ‘good’ across the board by the CQC.

It is the third time the service has been inspected in recent years, after previous visits in January 2015 and April 2017, and each time it has been given a ‘good’ rating overall.

However in both of the previous visits the service was given a ‘requires improvement’ rating in one of the five assessed categories, making this latest visit the best result yet.

Staff were given notice of the visit, in which users of the services and their relatives were consulted, as were various care records.

Inspectors noted that the service is safe with risk assessments, care plans and security arrangements in place.

Staff were praised by those who use the service and their relatives for being caring, considerate and respectful towards people.

One user said: “We just tend to chat from the minute they come through the door until the minute they leave.

“It's so nice just to have a bit of a laugh and chat about even nonsense because they're usually the only people I see every day and otherwise I'd just be talking to the wall."

Another said he appreciates the way carers have been known to go the extra mile for others.

"My wife always used to take great pride in her hair,” he said, “spending quite a lot of time making sure it looked its best.

“Unfortunately, she's not able to do that for herself now, but her regular carers are lovely and they always make sure they leave plenty of time to arrange her hair the way she likes it to be done.

“I know it's only a small thing but it makes a huge difference to my wife.”

The service was also said to be effective, with staff pointing to the "brilliant" training with which they were provided.

So too was it said to be responsive, with people's needs met through good organisation and delivery.

Users of the service said they were confident they knew the process for raising a complaint but had never felt the need to do so, adding: "I've been looked after by them for a number of years now, and I certainly haven't had anything I've had to raise with them as a formal complaint in all the time I've been here."

And management were also commended for being “visible and active” in the service. The regional manager was also in contact regularly, with regional meetings every three months and full organisation meetings every six.

The registered manager told inspectors they were well supported.

Some minor pitfalls were identified during the visit, with some daily records said to ‘lack detail’ and some information relating to care plans described as “difficult to locate”.

However the registered manager explained that the detail of daily records had already been identified as an area for improvement, while discussions on how to improve how care plan information is flagged was set to be discussed at a forthcoming meeting.