This inspection took place on 16 December 2015 and was an announced inspection. At the last inspection on 12 January 2014 the provider was found to be requiring improvement in two of the areas we looked at, safe and well-led.

Jubilee Citizens UK (Birmingham) is a Domiciliary Care Service which is registered to provide personal care services to people in their homes. We were told that since our last inspection improvements had been made and they were now providing personal care services to more people. At the time of our inspection Jubilee Citizens UK (Birmingham) were providing care and support to 23 people. The provider also offers other services to people such as support with shopping or household tasks that we do not regulate.

Jubilee Citizens UK (Birmingham) is required to have a register 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. A registered manager was in post at the time of our inspection.

People were protected from the risk of harm because there was enough staff to cover home care calls.

People were cared for in a safe way because staffs were knowledgeable about safeguarding and the provider had systems and processes in place to support this practice.

Where people needed support with their medications, staff had the knowledge and skills to provide this support safely.

People were supported by staff who had not always received the training they needed to do their job effectively. However, staff felt supported in their role and knew who to contact for advice or information should they require it.

People’s human rights were protected because they consented to the care they received and staffs were caring, kind and respectful.

People were supported to have food that they enjoyed and that helped them to remain healthy.

People were encouraged to be as independent as possible.

People were involved in the planning and review of their care and their views about the service were sought through regular review meetings and questionnaires.

People knew how to complain if they were unhappy and felt that the registered manager was responsive to their concerns.

The provider had implemented and improved some of the management systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service provided to people. We also found robust action plans for on-going development in this area.

We undertook an announced inspection of Jubilee Citizens UK Domiciliary Care Agency (DCA) on 12 January 2015. We told the provider two days before our visit that we would be inspecting them. We did this because we needed to make sure that one of the management team would be at their office during our inspection.

Jubilee Citizens UK is linked to another organisation and is located in the same building. They share a management team. Some roles such as the recruitment of staff are undertaken by the other organisation’s human resources department for Jubilee Citizens UK. Jubilee Citizens UK provides personal care services to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection six people were receiving a personal care service. The provider also offers other services to people such as support with shopping or household tasks that we do not regulate.

Jubilee Citizens UK registered with us in September 2013 to provide personal care and this was their first inspection.

There were systems in place to protect people from the risk of harm. We saw most people’s risk assessments were not robust and had either never been completed or had not been updated to reflect changes.

We saw that the provider had a medication policy in place and staff were trained to support people with their medication. However, at the time of our inspection we were told that no one was having their medicines administered to them by staff.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) states what must be done to ensure the rights of people who may lack mental capacity to make decisions are protected. The MCA Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) requires providers to submit applications to the Court of Protection for authority to deprive someone of their liberty. Although staff we spoke with did not have a comprehensive understanding of the MCA or DoLs they could tell us about the need to protect people’s human rights and were able to give us examples of how they would do this.

Care plans were in place for people, however we found that these were not detailed. Although they gave an outline of the tasks staff needed to undertake they were not robust. They did not describe how tasks should be completed or the level of support people required.

The provider worked with another organisation to recruit new staff and carry out necessary pre-employment checks. Staff received an induction and on-going training and some supervision.

At the time of this inspection there was no 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. We had been informed that the registered manager had left their post in December 2014. A new manager had been recruited in November 2014.

Staff told us that they had not always felt well led but always felt supported by their peers. All of the staff spoken with told us that they felt the acting manager was accessible by telephone and approachable.

We found that some systems were in place to monitor and improve the quality of service people received. However, we found that overall these were either not effective or had not been used.