This announced inspection took place on 30 August 2018 and was announced. The service was registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 05 May 2017 and this was the first time we had inspected this service.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses. It provides a service to older adults.

Dunamis Social Care Limited provides care and support to people who wish to remain in their own homes. Services include personal care, meal preparation, hospital discharge, live in carers and medication support. At the time of our inspection there were 29 people receiving personal care.

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.

People told us they felt safe, and staff had an understanding of abuse and the safeguarding procedures that should be followed to report abuse. All the staff we spoke with were confident that any concerns they raised would be followed up appropriately by their manager. Risk assessments were in place to manage the risks associated with people’s care. These included assessments to support people with their mobility, eating and drinking and falls. Staffing numbers were appropriate to keep people safe and the registered provider followed thorough recruitment procedures to ensure staff employed were suitable for their role.

People’s medicines were managed safely and in line with best practice guidelines. Systems were in place to ensure that people were protected by the prevention and control of infection. There were arrangements in place for the service to make sure that action was taken and lessons learned when things went wrong, to improve safety across the service

People’s needs and choices were assessed and their care provided in line with best practice that met their diverse needs. Staff received an induction process when they first commenced work at the service and received on-going training to ensure they were able to provide care based on current practice when supporting people.

People received enough to eat and drink and staff gave support when required. People were supported to use and access a wide variety of other services and social care professionals. The staff had a good knowledge of other services available to people and we saw these had been involved with supporting people using the service. People were supported to access health appointments when required, including opticians and doctors, to make sure they received continuing healthcare to meet their needs.

People's consent was gained before any care was provided. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice.

People received care that was person centred and met their needs. They had developed positive relationship with the staff who understood their likes and dislikes. Staff were kind, caring and treated people with dignity and respect.

People were listened to, their views were acknowledged and acted upon and care and support was delivered in the way that people chose and preferred. Records showed that people and their relatives were involved in the care planning process. There was a complaints procedure in place to enable people to raise complaints about the service.

Staff felt supported and valued. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the care and to ensure on-going improvement were made. The registered manager was aware of their responsibility to report events that occurred within the service to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and external agencies.