We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Catchers Care Ltd on 25 October 2018.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. Catcher’s Care support older people and younger adults, people with physical disabilities, sensory impairments, dementia and mental health needs. At the time of the inspection 36 people were using the service.

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 was last inspected on 29 and 31 August 2017 and was rated ‘Requires Improvement’. We asked the provider to act to make improvements as we found risks to people and medicines were not being managed safely. At this inspection we checked to see if the provider had taken actions to address these issues. We found that they had.

People were receiving safe support with their medicines. Staff had regular medicine administration training and competency assessments. There were systems and audit processes to help make sure that people received their medicines safely.

Risks to people were managed safely. Assessments of risks for people and their homes had been carried out. These identified any potential hazards to people’s well-being and considered how to respect people’s choices and minimise restrictions on their independence. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of how to manage risks safely.

At the last inspection we identified people had not always had assessments of their mental capacity to make certain decisions, accident and incident reporting and quality assurance systems were not always operating effectively. We also found statutory notifications had not always been submitted in a timely manner. The provider had acted to make improvements in these areas during the last inspection process. At this inspection we checked to see that these improvements had been embedded and sustained and found that they had.

Staff received MCA training and understood the relevant consent and decision-making requirements of this legislation. People’s mental capacity to be able to make decisions about different activities was assessed and recorded. Staff monitored people’s individual capacity and reviewed their assessments regularly. Where appropriate, people with authority to act in people’s best interests were identified and involved in consenting to any decisions made on their behalf. People are supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice.

Accident and incident reporting processes were understood and followed by staff. Incidents and accidents were reported appropriately to external agencies and reviewed by the registered manager and provider. Any necessary actions were put in place. Staff discussed outcomes and any learning following accidents and incidents to look at why incidents might be happening and agree ways to try and prevent them happening again.

The provider had reviewed the service quality assurance systems, introducing more varied and frequent audits to comprehensively cover all areas of service delivery. This helped identify any safety and quality risks and act to address them. Since the last inspection, when necessary, all statutory notifications had been submitted by the registered manager in a timely manner, as required.

People told us they felt safe using the service. One person said, “I feel very safe.” A person’s relative told us, “I would say without doubt that [name] is safe in the hands of the carers from Catchers.” Staff had received safeguarding training and under

Catchers care is a domiciliary care agency, which provides personal care to people living in their own houses or flats in the community. The registered office is in Ferring near Worthing, West Sussex and provides a care service to the surrounding areas. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 45 people in their own homes who had a mixture of needs. This included older people with physical disabilities and some people were living with dementia.

The service had a manager in post who had registered with the Commission in February 2016. 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.

People and their relatives told us they were happy with the care received by the service. Yet we found some aspects of the service were not always safe and needed improvement. Staff supported most people with their medicines. Staff used Medication Administration Records (MARs) to record when they had given medicines to people. However, we found this did not include all people’s prescribed medicines which were held in blister packs or topical creams. On occasions staff were involved in an error relating to people and their medicines. Records captured the actions taken by the provider to minimise any further risks to people. However, the actions taken by the provider did not include reporting the incident to the West Sussex safeguarding team for their review. This was not working in accordance with safeguarding procedures, local authority medicine policy and best practice guidance from The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This meant medicines were not always managed safely and the provider was in breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. During and after our inspection the provider shared with us the action they were taking to ensure safe systems were in place to minimise any further risks to people.

Staff, including the registered manager, had received training and understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We also observed how staff considered people’s consent to their care whilst supporting them. However, care records had failed to capture whether a person lacked capacity or not to make specific decisions in relation to their own care. It was not always clear why and who had made care related decisions and whether they were in a person’s best interests as mental capacity assessments had not been completed. We discussed this with the provider who told us they action they had taken.

Accidents and incidents were recorded by the staff team. Staff told us how they would routinely discuss accidents, such as people experiencing falls, with the registered manager. Staff were able to tell us advice would be sought from health professionals such as a GP and in emergencies paramedics would be called. They also told us how they would ensure any concerns were reported to the registered manager and other senior management colleagues in the office. However, records we checked in people’s homes did not always provide details on the action taken by the staff member attending to the incident. During the inspection the provider was able to tell us the action they had taken to address this.

Notifications are changes, events or incidents that the service must inform us about by law. The provider did not always notify the Commission when they were required to do so. We discussed this with the registered manager and the provider who told us the action they were taking. Shortly after the inspection they sent to us notifications retrospectively. Whilst checks made by the provider to ensure the quality of care provided to people had not always been effective, other audits, such as checking staff training and supervisi