This comprehensive inspection took place on 9 August 2017 and was announced as the service is a small domiciliary service and we needed to ensure there would be people and staff available to talk with. This was the first inspection of this service since registering with CQC.

The service had a full time registered manager in place. 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.

We found the service was extremely well led by a team of managers who were committed to ensuring people were at the heart of the service. People were encouraged and nurtured to have a clear community presence and excellent community links had been formed in innovative ways. This included hosting and developing a signing and singing choir which people who used the service and anyone in the local community could join in. They had recently taken part in a diversity festival in North Devon. They were also involved in work placements within the local community and taking part in the local carnival which people who used the service said was one of their highlights.

People were at the heart of the service and they had developed innovative ways to ensure people had a say about who was employed and the future direction of the service. People were encouraged to take up advocacy services to help them make independent choices about their lives.

Staff were highly motivated to provide a personalised service for people. They felt valued and supported. Staff spoke highly about the training and development they received to ensure they could provide a responsive and safe service to people in their own homes. People were supported with their health and dietary needs.

People were kept safe because staff had received training and understood the types of abuse which could occur and who they should report any concerns to. Only staff who were suitable to work with vulnerable people were employed. This was because checks on their suitability were always completed prior to them starting work for the service.

People’s medicines and monies were well managed and an independent auditing system was used to ensure this remained robust and accountable.

People’s views, opinions and concerns were dealt with appropriately. People were supported to have meaningful activities which included work placements as well as a range of leisure pursuits to suit individual interests and wishes.

People were supported to be as independent as possible taking into account risks. Where risk had been identified, measures were taken to minimise such risks. Care and support was well planned and there were always sufficient staff to meet people’s needs.