This announced inspection took place on 25 October 2018. We gave the provider 24 hours’ notice that we would be visiting the service. This was because the service provides care to people living in their own homes and we wanted to make sure staff would be available to speak with us

There was 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.

When we inspected, the service was providing personal care to 15 people. In some instances, the home care assistant would be a second carer for people who had an additional live in carer.

People and their relatives told us the service was safe and they felt cared for.

There were sufficient staff deployed to meet the needs of people receiving care. The registered manager recruited additional staff before building her client list to ensure they could always meet needs.

People were cared for by staff who had been trained in safeguarding. Staff knew how to report concerns and who to speak to outside of the service about safeguarding.

Comprehensive risk assessments minimised the potential for harm during care provision and in people’s home environments.

Every person had a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP) giving details how to evacuate them from their home in an emergency.

The provider responded quickly when accidents or incident happened or there were significant changes to peoples care such as a medicine change.

The provider supplied additional information about how to care for clients who had more complex needs and requirements.

People had an initial assessment completed to ensure the provider could meet their needs, this was comprehensive and involved the person and their relatives.

All staff completed an induction and shadowing shifts before starting in their post, staff told us the training was in-depth and fully prepared them for their work.

Staff received regular supervisions and their practice was assessed during spot checks each month.

Staff had a good working knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and told us they would ask for consent before providing care to people.

The provider had received many compliments and when received they were passed to staff concerned. The impact of the compliment was also recorded.

Care plans contained sufficient information to provide person centred care to people. Life history information enabled staff to start relevant conversations with people.

Staff maintained people’s dignity by communicating with them in the most effective way and ensuring their privacy was maintained both during care delivery and by not discussing them with unauthorised persons.

The provider issues regular quality assurance questionnaires to people, the feedback we saw was all positive. Staff also completed a questionnaire with nine of ten responses being very positive.

The registered manager read all care notes completed by home care assistants to ensure they had current knowledge of people. The care coordinators and registered manager also completed care calls to maintain their relationships with people and ensure they were familiar with peoples changing needs.

Complaints were thoroughly investigated and if possible, measures put in place to reduce the risk of similar concerns happening again.

We received positive feedback bout the registered manager from staff and people receiving a service.

Staff morale was very good, staff enjoyed their work and felt well supported by management.

The electronic care system provided real time auditing of the service and a full audit was completed every six months by senior management.

The providers values were evident in the practice of both the management team and the care staff.