We inspected the service on 26 and 27 April 2016. The inspection was announced. Mencap Portland and Oxborough Services provides care and support for people with a learning disability who live in two houses and people who are living in the community. This is a small service and at the time of our inspection 12 people were receiving care and support.

The service had a registered manager in place 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.

Staff knew how to keep people safe and understood their responsibilities to protect people from the risk of abuse. People received the level of support they required to safely manage their medicines. Risks to people’s health and safety were managed and plans were in place to enable staff to support people safely. There were sufficient numbers of staff to ensure people’s needs were met in a timely way.

People were supported by staff who had the knowledge and skills to provide safe and appropriate care and support. People received the assistance they required to have enough to eat and drink.

People were supported to make decisions and staff knew how to act if people did not have the capacity to make decisions.

The service had a culture of individualised care which placed people at the heart of the service, and staff went the extra mile to achieve this. Positive and caring relationships had been developed between staff and people who used the service and staff recognised the importance of people maintaining and developing new friendships. People were treated with dignity and respect and guided in how to recognise equality and diversity in the service.

People were involved in the planning and reviewing of their care and making decisions about what care they wanted. People received the care they needed and staff were aware of the different support each person needed. People were supported to maintain their hobbies and interests and staff recognised the importance of making sure people who received care and support in their homes did not become socially isolated. People felt able to make a complaint and knew how to do so.

People were integral in shaping the service and making decisions about the way it was run. The management team recognised the importance of placing people at the heart of the service and empowering their involvement. There were effective systems in place to monitor the service and people benefited from an open and transparent culture where their views were listened to.

Care was planned and delivered ensuring people were given safe and appropriate care. We saw there were detailed care plans in place which gave staff a wealth of information which would help them to know how people needed to be supported. We spoke with a relative of a person using the service and they told us, “I wouldn’t want my relative to be anywhere else.”

Staff were trained and supported to deliver safe, effective care. There were systems in place to ensure staff were given ongoing development. Both people we spoke with told us they liked the staff and that they supported them well. One person said, “They [staff] help me to clean my room and to cook.” The other person told us, “They [staff] are very nice.”

We found fortnightly meetings were held between staff and people using the service. Both people we spoke with told us they attended these meetings and said they got to have a say in what happened in relation to their care and support. One person said, “We talk about where we want to go out and what we are going to eat.”

We spoke with two people who used the service. People’s comments were positive and they told us they liked the staff team and the activities they were involved in. One person told us staff supported them to clean their home and prepare meals. Another person said they enjoyed going cycling with staff.

Records we looked at showed people were involved in decisions being made about their care and support and, when able, people had signed their support plans. For example, we saw that staff had helped people make choices about where they wanted to go on holiday

We looked at the support plans and records of three people who used the service and found people’s needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with their individual plan. Staff we spoke with demonstrated a good understanding of the needs of people using the service and how their support should be provided.

We found that staff had been screened as to their suitability to work with vulnerable adults and were aware of the appropriate reporting processes should an allegation of abuse be raised.

The provider had an effective quality assurance system.