This inspection took place on 27 and 29 July 2016. Nottingham Regional Office is a supported living service which provides personal care and support to people in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The service provided the regulated activity of personal care for 13 people at the time of the inspection.

There is a registered manager and she was available during the 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. Risks to people’s health and safety were managed and plans were in place to enable staff to support people safely without unnecessary restriction. There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people’s support needs and staff were recruited safely. People received the level of support they required to safely manage their medicines.

Staff received appropriate induction, training and supervision. People’s rights were protected under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People received the assistance they required with their meals. External professionals were involved in people’s care as appropriate to support them with their health needs.

Positive and caring relationships had been developed between staff and people who used the service. People were involved in the planning and reviewing of their care and making decisions about what care they wanted. People were treated with dignity and respect by staff. People’s independence was promoted by staff.

People received the care they needed and staff were aware of the different support each person needed. Care records provided sufficient information for staff to provide personalised care. People felt able to make a complaint and knew how to do so.

People and their relatives were involved in the development of the service. Staff told us they would be confident raising any concerns with the management and the registered provider was meeting their regulatory responsibilities. There were systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided.

We spoke with five people who were using the service and asked if they felt staff treated them with dignity and respect. One person told us, “I think all the staff are nice, which is important to me.” Another person said, “The staff are really good, I would say they are polite and respectful.”

We spoke with four staff about the needs of different people that they cared for. We saw that staff had a good understanding of people’s needs and how they met those needs.

Staff were completing medication administration records (MARs) when a person had been observed taking their medication. The MARs that we saw had been fully completed and indicated whether people had taken their medication or not. We saw that an audit of MARs was taking place and, where any gaps in the records was identified, appropriate action was taken to rectify this.

We spoke with five people who were using the service and asked if they were aware of the different ways in which they could provide feedback about the service. One person said, “I had a survey to fill in a while back.” Another person told us, “I have raised a couple of issues directly with the manager and they have sorted it.”

People were all aware of how to contact the office should they wish to provide feedback or raise a concern. People told us that they would have no hesitation in raising anything with the manager.

The person using the service we spoke with told us that staff would ask for their consent before carrying out any tasks.

The person using the service we spoke with told us they were happy with the level of support and care they received.

In the care plans we looked at we saw that information received from others had been taken into account. For example information from people’s social workers, GP and other healthcare professionals had informed the care plans.

We saw that people using the service had access to the complaints policy within their service user guide. This was also provided in an easy read format.

The people using the service we spoke with told us they were happy any complaints would be dealt with properly.

The people we spoke with told us they were happy they could be involved in their care and reviews as much as they wanted to. We saw that people had access to their care plan information and were able to read it should they wish to. We were also told that staff would assist people with reading information should that be required.

The people we spoke with told us they felt they were supported with their assessed needs. People also felt they were supported to maintain as much independence as possible.

One person told us how they enjoyed going out on day trips and to the shops with their support workers.