We carried out this announced inspection on 1 and 8 June 2017.

FocusAbility Support and Care Services is owned by a company called FocusAbilitySupport & Care Services Ltd. It is registered to provide personal care to people who live in their own homes. The service cares for adults of all ages, who may experience needs related to dementia, learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder, mental health, physical disabilities and sensory impairment.

The registered persons also operates a day care support service in the same building as the personal care support service although this type of service is not regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

This was the first inspection of the service since it became registered with The Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 29/05/2015.

At the time of our inspection the service was providing support for 42 people. 27 of the people were receiving support under the regulated activity the service is registered with us for.

There was a registered manager in place who ran the service. 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. In this report when we speak about both the company and the registered manager we sometimes refer to them as being, ‘The registered persons’.

Staff knew how to keep people safe and about the actions they needed to take to report any concerns for the safety and welfare of the people they cared for. People had been supported to avoid preventable accidents.

Medicines were managed safely and people had been helped to obtain all of the healthcare they needed. There were enough care staff available to provide the care people needed and care visits were completed in line with the timings people had identified they had wanted.

Staff had received the training and guidance the registered persons had identified as required of them and staff knew how to support people with their personal care and support needs. People had also benefited from care staff using good practice guidance in order to keep improving the way they provided care.

People had been assisted to eat and drink enough to maintain their well-being and they had been consulted about the care they wanted and needed to receive.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and care staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. Policies and systems in the service supported this practice. CQC is required by law to monitor how registered persons apply the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and to report on what we find. The registered manager and care staff had received training in this subject and this enabled them to help people make decisions for themselves. When people lacked the capacity to make their own decisions the principles of the MCA and codes of practice were followed. This helped to protect people’s rights by ensuring decisions were made that were in their best interests.

People were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff recognised people’s right to privacy and promoted their dignity. Confidential information was kept private.

People had been consulted about how best to develop the service. Good team work was promoted by the registered persons and people and staff were supported to speak out if they had any concerns.

The provider and registered manager had a range of quality checks in place which had been completed and were on-going to make sure that people reliably received all of the care they needed.