This announced inspection took place on 21 February 2017. This domiciliary care agency is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 12 people in their own homes.

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.

The management needed to improve on their record management and ensure that records, including care plans and medication administration records were reviewed regularly.

People received safe care and support. Staff understood the need to protect people from harm and abuse and knew what action they should take if they had any concerns. There were sufficient staff to meet the needs of people that used the service and recruitment procedures protected people from receiving unsafe care from care staff unsuited to the job.

Care records contained risk assessments and risk management plans to protect people from identified risks and helped to keep them safe but also enabled positive risk taking. They gave information for staff on the identified risk and informed staff on the measures to take to minimise any risks.

Staff received training during their induction programme which helped staff understand and perform their roles, and staff received good support to ensure they performed their roles well.

People were actively involved in decisions about their care and support needs. There were formal systems in place to assess people’s capacity for decision making under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. In addition, people were supported to identify and respond to their changing healthcare needs.

People received care from staff that were kind and friendly. People had meaningful and fun interactions with staff and people looked forward to seeing the staff. Staff understood people’s needs and ensured people were given choices about how they wished to receive their care. People received care at their own pace and had their privacy and dignity maintained when receiving assistance with their personal care.

People’s care needs were assessed to ensure the service could meet people’s expectations before they began using the service. Care plans were written in a person centred manner and focussed on empowering people to receive the care they required. They detailed how people wished to be supported and people were fully involved in making decisions about their care. People received the care they needed and a suitable complaints procedure was in operation to resolve any concerns people raised.

People and staff reacted positively to the registered manager and the culture within the service focussed upon supporting people’s health and well-being which enabled people to stay in their own homes as long as possible. Systems were in place to identify where improvements were required and for people and staff to provide feedback about the service.