This inspection was carried out on 24 July 2018. We gave 24 hours’ notice of our intention to visit Mayfair Homecare (Portsmouth) to ensure that the people we needed to speak with were available.

Mayfair homecare is a provider of community home care services, supporting 135 people within the Portsmouth area.

The service had a registered manager. 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 of the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

This was Mayfair Homecare’s first inspection since registration. We made a recommendation during this inspection that the provider ensure documentation surrounding people’s ability to consent to their care in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 be reviewed.

Documentation relating to people being able to consent to their own care was not always present in care plans. Where people were not able to sign their consent forms due to lack of capacity, Lasting Power of Attorney (LPoA) documentation was not always available in people’s care plans even though relatives had signed on the person’s behalf. The registered manager agreed to retrieve the correct documentation during our inspection and began to rectify this issue immediately following our discussion.

Medicines were safely managed in accordance with the provider’s policy and staff had received training and competency assessments prior to being able to administer medicines to people.

There were enough staff deployed to support people safely and the provider completed robust recruitment checks to ensure the right staff were employed to care for people. Innovative recruitment practices had been implemented to encourage new staff to join the provider workforce.

Infection control practices were followed and staff received training in this area to ensure that people were safe from the spread of infection.

Risk assessments were completed to identify and manage risks to people and staff to keep them safe.

Staff gave good examples of how to recognise the signs of abuse and who to report any concerns to. Staff were aware of the whistleblowing policy and felt confident that any concerns raised would be dealt with effectively.

Lessons learned from incidents were discussed with staff at team meetings to ensure best practice was followed and learning was shared with all staff to prevent reoccurrence.

Staff received an initial induction, training and shadowing opportunities as a new member of the team. The provider offered mandatory, annual refresher training to ensure their staff maintained the appropriate skills and knowledge to carry out their roles effectively. Supervision, spot checks and annual appraisals were provided for staff and staff were offered other training opportunities to develop professionally if they wished. Staff achievements were recognised with an annual awards ceremony.

The service had implemented ‘diversity Thursday’ where staff were encouraged to embrace different cultures represented within their own teams. This was part of the wider ‘Wellbeing Framework’ which included tackling loneliness amongst people using services within the community, a ‘disability confidence scheme’, ‘Armed Forces covenant’ and subscription to ‘The Care Workers Charity.’

People were supported to maintain adequate nutrition and hydration where required and where health or social care support was necessary, this was arranged. The management team had established good working links with the local authority safeguarding and social work teams to ensure that their working relationships were transparent and open.

Care workers and office staff provided compassionate and kind care to people. Fundraising was an ongoing endeavour to provide events for people to tackle loneliness and promote inclusiveness. Dignity