About the service: Caerus Lifecare Limited is a domiciliary care agency which provides care in people’s homes to older people. The services they provide include personal care and housework. At the time of inspection, the service provided care to four people, two of whom received personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

The service first registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in May 2018. This inspection on 23 April 2019 was the first inspection for the service.

One person who received care from the service and one relative told us they were satisfied with the level of care the agency provided and raised no concerns about safety. They spoke positively about care workers and said that they were respectful, kind and caring.

Some systems were in place to help ensure people were protected from the risk of abuse. There were appropriate policies in place with the relevant contact details. The registered manager explained that care workers had received in-house safeguarding training but there was no documented evidence to confirm this.

Risk assessments covered areas such as the environment, physical health and personal care. We however noted that there was a lack of information about control measures and action required to reduce potential risks. We raised this with the registered manager and she advised that she would review these and ensure they included further detail.

The registered manager confirmed the service did not currently administer medicines to people. We therefore did not look at how the service managed medicines during this inspection.

Feedback from one person and a relative indicated that there were no issues with regards to care worker's punctuality and attendance. However, the electronic monitoring system used by the service did not accurately document the length of time care workers provided care for. We raised this with the registered manager and she advised that she would address this shortfall.

The service had carried out employment checks, however we noted that the service had failed to obtain Disclosure and Barring checks (DBS). The DBS helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent the appointment of unsuitable people. However, we noted that these had been obtained by previous employers and not by the service and were more than six months old. We found a breach of regulation in respect of this.

People received care and support from the same team of care workers. This maintained consistency and ensured that staff knew people and could build friendly professional relationships with people.

We discussed training with the registered manager. She advised that care workers had received in-house training which she had provided. However, we noted there was no documented evidence to confirm care workers had completed this training. We were therefore concerned that care workers were not sufficiently trained to provide effective care. We did not see evidence that staff had been consistently supported to fulfil their roles and responsibilities through an induction, training and regular supervisions. We found a breach of regulation in respect of this.

Details about people’s nutrition and hydration had been documented in the care plan.

People received care that respected their privacy and dignity as well as promoted their independence.

Care support plans included basic details about the support people needed with regards to various aspects of their daily life. However, we noted that the information recorded was limited and there was a lack of information about what support people wanted and how they wanted the service to provide support. We found that information in these care plans were task focused and lacked information about people's preferences. We raised this with the registered manager and she advised that she would review these and ensure that they were personalised and specific to people’s individual needs and detailed.

The service had a forma