Registered Office Elite Home Care Limited provides care for people in their own homes. On the day of our visit the service was providing personal care to 30 people with a range of needs including older persons, people with mental health issues and those living with dementia.

The service had a registered manager. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People, and their relatives, said they felt safe with the staff. There were policies and procedures regarding the safeguarding of adults. Staff were aware of the correct procedures to follow if they considered someone was being neglected or poorly treated.

People received a reliable service from regular staff. There were sufficient numbers of suitably experienced staff employed to meet people’s needs. Thorough recruitment processes were in place for newly appointed staff to check they were suitable to work with people who may be at risk.

People said that they received care visits at the agreed times and that care staff always stayed for the full allocated time. Staff also said that they had sufficient time to care for people safely and they were not rushed.

People were supported by staff to take their medicines and this was recorded in their care records. Checks were carried out to ensure staff were competent to administer medicines and that staff were following the correct procedures.

Each person had a care plan which gave guidance to staff on supporting people safely. Risks to people were assessed and recorded. These included environmental assessments for people’s homes so staff knew any risks and what they should do to keep people and themselves safe.

There was suitable training, support and induction for staff so they could support people effectively. Staff told us they received regular training and that they had a good induction before they started to provide support to people.

The registered manager and staff understood people’s rights to be involved in decisions about their care and were able to tell us what consent to care meant in practice. People were supported to express their views and to be involved in making decisions about their care and support. The registered manager and staff had received training in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA)) 2005 and associated legislation and knew what action to take if they thought a person lacked capacity to consent.

People were supported to eat and drink in line with their individual needs. The agency supported people to access healthcare professionals when needed.

People were supported by staff who were kind and caring. People were able to express their views and said they were encouraged to be independent as possible. People said they were treated with dignity and respect.

People said their needs were regularly reviewed and they were contacted on a regular basis to ensure that their current up to date needs were being met.

The provider had a policy and procedure for quality assurance. The registered manager and senior staff carried out checks to monitor the quality of the service provided. Regular quality monitoring visits were undertaken to check that the service provided by the agency was meeting people’s needs.

There was a positive culture at the agency that was open, inclusive and empowering. People said that they were aware who to speak to in order to raise concerns. The agency had a complaints procedure in place to respond to people’s concerns and to drive improvement.