Cherry Care is a small domiciliary care agency that provides the regulated activity, ‘personal care’ to people living in their own homes in the community. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided.

At the time of the inspection, the service was providing ‘personal care’ to eight people using the service.

At our last inspection in December 2015, we rated the service ‘Good’. At this inspection, we found the evidence continued to support the rating of ‘Good’ and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

People and relatives felt safe with the staff providing their care and support. Staff were aware of their responsibilities for keeping people safe from any form of abuse and avoidable harm. The registered manager understood their responsibilities to keep people safe, they had notified the local safeguarding authority and Care Quality Commission (CQC) of safeguarding concerns and carried out investigations as required.

Staff recruitment procedures ensured appropriate checks were carried out on new staff to ensure they were suitable to work at the service. The staffing arrangements met the individual dependency needs of people using the service.

Staff had the appropriate skills, competency and knowledge to meet people’s individual needs. Health and safety training followed current relevant national guidance to prevention and control of infection.

Ongoing support and one to one supervision was provided for staff to reflect on their practice and promote self development.

People received their medicines safely and staff supported people to access support from healthcare professionals when required to ensure that people received coordinated care and support.

Staff understood the Mental Capacity Act, 2005 (MCA) legislation and followed this in practice.

People were involved in planning their ongoing care and support. The care plans were person centred and provided staff with appropriate guidance.

People's needs and risks were assessed and staff were aware of the needs of each person. Staff treated people with kindness, dignity and respect and provided care in keeping with their wishes and preferences.

Feedback from people, relatives and staff was used to drive continuous improvement of the service. The complaints policy was made available to people and relatives so they knew how to raise any concerns and complaints.

The service notified the Care Quality Commission of events and incidents, as required by law. Internal audits continually monitored the quality of the service, based on the audit findings timely action was taken to drive continuous improvement of the service.

This domiciliary care inspection took place over two days on 18 and 23 December 2015.

Cherry Care Services is a small domiciliary care agency that provides care and support to adults that live at home in Northamptonshire.

A registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 were supported in their own homes by trained staff that were able to meet people’s needs safely. There were sufficient numbers of staff employed to meet people’s assessed needs.

People were protected from the risks associated with the recruitment of staff by robust recruitment systems and appropriate training. Risk assessments were in place to reduce and manage the risks to people’s health and welfare.

People’s care plans reflected their needs and choices about how they preferred their care and support to be provided. Staff were caring, friendly, and responsive to people’s changing needs. Staff were able to demonstrate that they understood what was required of them to provide people with the care they needed.

People were treated with dignity and their right to make choices about how they preferred their care to be provided was respected. People had been kept informed in a timely way whenever staff were unavoidably delayed, or when another member of staff had to be substituted at short notice.

People’s rights were protected. People knew how to raise concerns and complaints. Complaints were appropriately investigated and action was taken to make improvements to the service when this was found to be necessary.

There were systems in place in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service. People’s views about the quality of their service were sought and acted upon.