The inspection took place on 5 October 2016. The inspection was announced which meant that we gave 48 hours’ notice of our visit. This was because the location was a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be available to assist with our inspection.

Medevent is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care to people in their own home. At the time of our visit the service was providing support to two people.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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.

People’s relatives told us they felt that care was delivered safely. Turnover of staff was low and there was a specific team of staff that regularly provided support on each contract. This meant that people knew the staff who were supporting them and the staff had the knowledge and training to meet the specific needs of each person. When new staff were recruited they were never sent to a call without being accompanied by a member of staff who was known to the person.

There were systems and processes in place to protect people from the risk of harm. Individual risk assessments were in place and covered key risks specific to the person. These forms were very detailed, regularly reviewed and updated with new risk assessments being put in place whenever necessary.

The service had an up to date safeguarding policy and this was easily accessible to staff via an online staff portal along with details of the whistle blowing procedure. Staff were aware of the action they should take if they suspected abuse was taking place.

We found that safe recruitment and selection procedures were in place and appropriate checks had been undertaken prior to staff starting work.

At the time of our inspection the service was not supporting anyone with their medicines but staff were undergoing training with a view to doing so in the future.

Staff received appropriate training and had the skills and knowledge to provide support to the people they cared for, this included specialist training specific to the needs of the people using this service. New staff underwent induction training which included shadowing a more experienced colleague.

Staff had a working knowledge of the principles of consent and the Mental Capacity Act and understood how this applied to supporting people in their own homes.

Staff had not previously received regular supervision and annual appraisals to monitor their performance however these had been recently introduced and we saw evidence that these meetings were now taking place.

Staff provided the necessary support at mealtimes and when appropriate records were kept to ensure people enjoyed a suitable, healthy diet and maintained a good level of nutrition and hydration.

Staff were knowledgeable about the people they provided care to and were mindful of respecting people’s privacy and dignity.

Staff were happy in their job and had a positive attitude about the care provided by the service. Relatives we spoke to felt that the staff delivered a very good standard of care.

Care plans detailed people’s individual needs and preferences which meant that they received support tailored to their personal needs. People and their relatives were involved in care planning.

People were supported to engage in activities that were important to them and reviews of what was working well were regularly undertaken.

The service had an up to date complaints policy in place and a clear procedure for following these up, although at the time of our inspection no complaints had been received.

There were systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided. The management team aud

We visited the headquarters of the service and met with the registered manager. Currently a team of nine staff were employed on a sub-contracting basis to support people's care. The team consisted of specialist paramedics, qualified nurse and health care assistants. Due to the nature of the people's conditions we were unable to speak with them directly. However, we were able to speak with one relative who told us that the service provided by Medevent was “superb”. They said that they had “Nothing but praise for the team who had cared for their relative over a significant number of years”.

They went on to say that since Medevent took over “It had been the most settled period of their relatives care”. “The care team are a permanent part of our family and they provided discreet care allowing their relative their own space to develop an independent life as is possible”. “We work closely with the company and the team to ensure our relatives medical and social care is well balanced”.

We were unable to gather views of patients as part of this inspection.