The inspection took place on 23 May 2018 with the registered provider being given short notice of the visit to the office, in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies. This was the first inspection since the service registered with the CQC in May 2017.

Hales Group Limited is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting approximately 120 people with varying needs, this included older people, people living with dementia and people with a learning disability.

The service had a registered manager in post at the time of our 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

All the people we spoke with were happy with the quality of the care the service provided. They praised the care workers for the support they delivered and commented positively about staff working in the office.

Staff demonstrated a commitment to supporting people to be as independent as possible, while assisting them in their daily needs. People told us their privacy and dignity was respected and staff were competent in their work, kind, friendly and helpful.

There were systems in place to reduce the risk of abuse and to assess and monitor potential risks to individual people. Concerns, complaints, incidents and accidents were being effectively investigated and monitored to reduce risks to people and make sure they received the standard of care they expected.

Recruitment processes helped the employer make safer recruitment decisions when employing staff. Staff had undertaken a structured induction, essential training and received regular support, to help develop their knowledge and skills so they could effectively meet people’s needs.

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 supported this practice. Records showed people had consented to their planned care and staff understood the importance of gaining people’s consent and acting in their best interest.

Where possible, people were encouraged to manage their own medication, with some people being supported by relatives. Where assistance was required support was provided by staff who had been trained to carry out this role.

People’s needs had been assessed before their care package commenced and we found where possible they or their relatives had been involved in formulating care plans. Overall, care plans provided satisfactory information and guidance to staff, which assisted them to deliver the care people needed, in the way they preferred. We saw further work was underway to make the plans more comprehensive regarding people’s individual preferences.

The complaints policy was provided to people using the service along with other information about how the service intended to operate. The people we spoke with told us they would feel comfortable raising concerns, if they had any. When concerns had been raised we saw the correct procedure had been used to record, investigate and resolve issues.

People were consulted about their satisfaction in the service received and a system was in place to make sure company policies were followed. The majority of the people we spoke with, including staff, told us they were very happy with the way the service was run. People spoke positively about the management team and how staff delivered care.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.