Marie Curie provides personal and nursing care and support to people who have chosen to receive their end of life care at home in the eastern region of England. At the time of our inspection there were over 400 people receiving care. This announced inspection took place on 20 April 2017.

There was 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The registered manager provided clear guidance and leadership to a highly skilled and motivated team.

People who were receiving care and their relatives felt safe. People were supported by staff that knew how to recognise when people were at risk of harm and knew what action they should take to keep people safe.

People’s needs were continually assessed, and their care needs met and were updated as their needs changed.

There were enough staff to provide planned care and also care required at short notice when families were in crisis. People received care from staff that were safely recruited, skilled and experienced in providing end of life care.

People received their medicines safely as all staff had received training and their competencies had been assessed.

People’s needs were met by staff that had the required knowledge and skills to support them appropriately. Staff received on-going training to develop and update their skills and staff were supported to carry out their roles through regular supervision.

Staff gained people’s consent before they entered their homes and provided care. Staff respected people’s choices about how they wanted to live their lives, including people’s preferred names, gender identity and gender of care staff. People were supported to receive their care at home in accordance with their wishes.

People were treated with respect. People received care from compassionate staff that took time to build quality relationships that impacted positively to the way relatives coped with people’s end of life care and subsequent bereavement.

Staff demonstrated their commitment to providing high quality care and the service’s values at staff meetings and training; where staff strived to improve their practice through reflective learning and discussion.

The service worked in successful collaboration with other healthcare professionals to provide an integrated healthcare team where people received a seamless service for their end of life care.

People received information on how to make a complaint and the service used the feedback to improve the service. The registered manager had implemented systems to improve communication. The provider continued to develop the service through quality monitoring.