A Blackburn care provider, which was assessed after concerns over safeguarding, was found to be performing well after the introduction of a new management structure.

Inspectors visited Premier Care Blackburn on Dalton Court between October 12 and 17 and judged the provider to be "good" in the criteria of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

The provider offers care in dementia, drug and alcohol dependence, mental health, physical disabilities and sensory impairment.

After the new management took over, improvements were considered to have been made in the management of medicines, recruitment and quality of people’s care plans and risk assessments and was no longer in breach of legal restrictions.

The report said: “There were enough staff to meet people's needs, however at times staff struggled to reach service users on time due to issues such as traffic and staff sickness.

“Care plans were person-centred and contained a good amount of detail so that staff knew people's needs and preferences.

“This was an improvement following the last inspection and staff had completed a number of relevant training courses recently which they commented had improved their knowledge and skills.”

Staff were committed to meeting people’s needs effectively and the manager listened to his team well, so that they could be supported to help manage people’s complex health needs.

People and relatives also gave positive feedback about the staff and the service, and people were generally happy with their care and knew how to raise concerns if required.

However, staffing issues meant that while some patients had consistent staff, others felt improvements could be made, as at times, staff did not always stay for the required length of time, often due to traffic and staff covering a wide geographical area.

The management team were aware of this issue and planned to make improvements in conjunction with recruiting new staff.

Inspectors were informed by families and patients were involved in planning their care, and one relative said: “The carers are all very nice, my relative seems very happy with them.

“My relative was very reluctant to have help and the carers have all tried to make my relative as comfortable as possible.

"The majority of carers are regular and my relative seems to like them all."