We inspected Kernow Home Care Limited on the 22 and 26 June 2017, the inspection was announced 24 hours in advance to ensure that the manager of the service would be available. This is in accordance with our current methodology for the inspection of home care agencies. The service was last inspected in January 2015. At that time the service was found to be good overall. We found the service remains good at this inspection.

The service provides care and support to adults of all ages, in their own homes In and around Penzance and St Just in the far west of Cornwall. This includes people with physical disabilities and dementia care needs. The service mainly provides personal care for people in short visits at key times of the day to help people get up in the morning, go to bed at night and with support to prepare meals.

People said they felt safe while receiving support and relatives told us people were safe. Staff understood local safeguarding procedures and how to recognise signs of potential abuse. They told us, “People are as safe as we can make them” and “Everybody seems safe”.

People’s care plans provided staff with sufficient detailed guidance to enable them to meet their care needs. These document had been reviewed and updated and included risk assessments and information for staff on how to protect people from identified areas of risk.

The service was short staffed. The registered manager recognised this issue and was in the process of actively recruiting additional staff members. In addition, the service was declining new care packages at the time of our inspection. Following the inspection the registered manger took action to ensure that the available staff team were able to meet people’s needs. People were aware of the staffing issues but reported this had not impacted on the quality of support they received. One person told us, “They are jolly good. They are short staffed but my golly they are cheerful and all very willing.” Staff commented, “Staffing is tight but we are getting it covered” and “It is not impacting on the people.” We found that were sufficient staff available to provide all of the service’s planned visits but this involved managers providing significant numbers of care visits.

Staff rotas were well organised and people normally received support from consistent small groups of care staff who they knew well. People told us, “They always turn up” and record showed that the service had only missed two care visit so far in 2017. The service used a mobile phone based application to share information about planned care visits with staff who told us, “We get the rota every Friday via e mail and on the App which is brilliant. It has a list of all the visits you have to do each day”.

Rotas included travel time between consecutive care visits and the service call monitoring data showed that people routinely received care visits on time and for the full duration. People told us, “They are seldom late”, “Very good for time, bit late for traffic occasionally but that is not their fault”, “They don’t rush me” and “It is mostly the same one so we have gotten used to each other.”

Recruitment procedures were safe and all necessary checks had been completed before new staff provided support. There were induction training procedures in place for new members of staff and all staff new to the care sector completed the care certificate. The registered manager was in the process of reviewing and updating the service’s training policies and had recently appointed a training lead to ensure staff training needs were managed. As part of this process analysis of the training needs had been completed and an action plan developed to ensure these needs were met. Staff had noticed improvements in the service’s training systems and told us, “The training is much better” and “There is a plan to improve the training.”

The service was acting within the legal framework of the Mental Capacity Act 2005(MCA). Mana

Kernow Home Care Limited provides personal care to people who live in their own homes in West Cornwall. At the time of our inspection the service was providing care and support to 45 predominantly elderly people.

The organisation was led by the registered manager who was based in the service’s St Just office. 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.

People who received care and support from Kernow Home Care Limited told us they were safe and happy with the service they received. People’s comments included, “yes I’m safe, I trust them implicitly”, “they are a great bunch of lads and lasses, I couldn’t wish for better” and “they look after me very well”.

Care plans were detailed, personalised and provided staff with sufficient information to enable them to meet people’s care needs. Risk assessments had been completed and staff were provided with guidance on how to protect people from identified risks, while encouraging people’s independence.

The service’s visit schedules were well organised and there were a sufficient number of staff available to provide people’s care visits in accordance with their preferences.

A call monitoring system was used to record staff arrival and departure time for care visits. This information was monitored by managers in real time and appropriate actions were taken by managers when necessary to ensure care visits were not missed.

We reviewed call monitoring data, daily care records and staff visit schedules and found people routinely received their care visit at the agreed time. People told us, “they have always come on time, sometimes they might be three minutes either way but never more than that” and said their carers stayed for the full length of planned care visits.

Care staff were well motivated and effectively supported by managers. Staff training needs had not been fully met at the time of our inspection. Managers were aware of these issues and necessary training was planned to be provided to staff following our inspection.

The service was in the process of making significant changes to its management structures. Managers had been appropriately supported by the provider and a consultant during these changes, and concerns in relation to manager’s workloads had been addressed and resolved.