Care Quality Commission report: The Private Care Company
The Private Care Company
Date of assessment: 24th April to 19th May 2026. Rated 'Good' overall.
The Private Care Company is a care at home service providing support to adults of all ages living in their own homes. This included live-in care, full day one to one support and shorter homecare visits. This service was inspected due to the age of rating. At the time of this assessment, 67 people were receiving a regulated activity.
The provider was registered to support autistic people and people with a learning disability. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider could guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Although the service met the needs of the people they supported, some improvements were needed around care planning and daily records.
At the time of this assessment, not all staff had completed specific mandatory training on how to support people with a learning disability or autism spectrum disorder. The registered manager had plans in place to ensure this training would be completed in the next three months.
The provider did not always have effective governance and oversight. Whilst it had not impacted the safety of people, the provider needed to strengthen some processes for reviewing care plans, daily care notes and risk assessments. The provider had not always had effective quality assurance systems such as analysing incidents for themes and trends or monitoring care call times and durations. Leaders were open to feedback and had taken immediate actions to make service improvements. However, this will take time to fully embed in practice. Despite the shortfalls identified, people received care that met their needs.
People were supported to access other services when needed. Care plans included information about key services and professionals involved in their care and support. External professionals and partners spoke positively about effective partnership working with leaders and staff.
People received their medicines safely and in line with their preferences. Care plans detailed information about people’s likes, dislikes and interests. Care plans detailed people’s decision-making capability. The service worked within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and people were supported to have choice. Staff provided kind and compassionate care. They protected people’s privacy and dignity.
Staff were recruited safely and pre-employment checks were carried out to ensure they were safe to work with people. Staff had training, supervisions and spot checks to ensure they delivered care safely. Staff were encouraged to develop their skills so they could take on more senior roles to support and train other staff. The provider told us they celebrated good practice of staff. They held OSCA (Outstanding Service and Care Awards) events to celebrate staff achievements and this was shared in newsletters for people, relatives and other staff.
The provider was implementing a new process to make it easier for staff to access their policies and procedure. The provider had leaders to manage the service. This included a registered manager and a care manager.
People's experience of the service
People were kept safe. Relatives told CQC that people felt safe with staff. People and relatives spoke positively about continuity of their staff teams where they had live-in staff, or full day calls for one to one support.
However, where people received shorter and more frequent care calls throughout the day, they and their relatives reported that there was not always good continuity of staff. They also reported their calls were not always on time or the full time, and that they were not always consulted or informed their calls times would change ahead of receiving their rota. The registered manager told CQC that they had not received any complaints about this. However, they also told CQC that they were reviewing existing processes for monitoring call times and durations to ensure they had robust oversight.
People and relatives reported that staff were kind and caring. People had been involved in their care planning. Relatives spoke positively about how staff treated people and valued the support and companionship they provided. People had choice and control over their lives and were encouraged to be independent where possible. The provider shared examples of how they treated people as individuals.
CQC viewed photographic examples of staff working with people to support their individual interests and hobbies.