This inspection took place on 26 January 2017. The visit was announced to make sure the registered manager and other senior staff were available to facilitate the inspection. This was the first inspection of the service since registration in December 2015. The service was previously registered at a different location as ‘Sutton Short Breaks Service’.

Barnardo's The Triangle provides respite care and befriending services for children and young people with disabilities within their home and/or the community. This enables relatives and carers to have short breaks from their caring responsibilities.

The service had a registered manager in post. 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 service worked to match staff with children and young people looking carefully at areas such as the support needed, skills required and cultural background. Children and young people were supported by consistent staff members who knew them well and were trained and well supported in their job roles. Each staff member had been safely recruited, had access to regular training and supervision and felt well supported by the management team.

The service completed detailed assessments of children and young people’s needs and these were used to inform their support plan. The service kept children and young people’s needs under review and made changes as required. Staff were given the knowledge and support to manage specific health and behavioural needs.

Staff understood how to help protect children and young people from the risk of abuse. The service had procedures in place to report any safeguarding concerns to the local authority. Children, young people and staff were protected from potential risk of harm as the service identified and assessed any risks to them and reviewed these on a regular basis.

Relatives and carers felt able to raise any concerns or complaints. There was a procedure in place for people to follow if they wanted to raise any issues.

The service was well led. Managers monitored the quality of the service and made changes to improve the service provided when required. Relatives, carers and staff all told us that they found the management team approachable and responsive.