This announced inspection took place on 22 and 26 October 2018. This was the first inspection of the service since it registered with CQC in October 2017.

Devon Enhanced Recovery Service provides a supported living service to people with mental health needs so they can live as independently as possible. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting seven people living in two shared houses. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living: this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Not everyone using Devon Enhanced Recovery Service receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’ support, that is, help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. Two of the seven people using the service were receiving support with their personal care; we therefore only looked at the support these two people received.

The service had a registered manager; however, they were on a period of leave at the time of the inspection. 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. An acting manager had been appointed the week prior to the inspection and they were available on both days we visited.

During the inspection we met with both people receiving personal care support. One person chose to speak with us about their experiences: they said they felt safe and the staff were nice.

The service used a high number of agency staff who were less familiar with people’s support needs and who had limited access to people’s support records. At times only agency staff were available at the shared house where the two people receiving personal care support lived.

Staff were not always provided with the training and support they needed to undertake their job. Recruitment records had not been fully completed for all staff and it was not possible to ascertain their suitably to work at the service.

We reviewed the documentation used by the service to record people’s care needs and any associated risks. We found the records available did not provide staff with a clear description of people’s needs or how they should offer support. This meant that staff did not have all the information they needed to support people in a consistent way that promoted their independence: this was particularly important as the service used a high number of agency staff. Risks to people’s health, safety and well-being had been identified. However, the information to guide staff about how to support people in a way that minimised these risks was insufficiently detailed to ensure people were supported as safely as possible.

Important information about how to support one person with their medicines was not included with the medicine administration records. This placed the person at risk of being given medicines when their GP had instructed staff to withhold this if they drank alcohol.

Both people receiving personal care support had long-standing health conditions, including those relating to eating. The support plans to guide staff about how to support people in line with their best interests and in a way that protected their health were either not detailed or not available.

Throughout our inspection we observed people being supported by staff who were respectful and friendly, and who demonstrated their fondness and interest in people. Staff provided people with one to one opportunities to share their views about how they were being supported. However, a formal process for obtaining feedback from people had not been undertaken for some