This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own home in the community. It provides a service to older adults and at the time of the inspection was supporting 46 people in the Braintree, Witham and Colchester areas of Essex.

The inspection was announced and we gave the provider notice as we needed to make sure that someone would be at the office when we visited.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

This was the first inspection of this service since it was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). At this inspection we found shortfalls in areas such as medicine administration, recruitment and training. The provider’s quality assurance systems had not identified these shortfalls. Staff recruitment was not robust and did not ensure that people were protected. Staff were provided with training but this did not provide practical guidance to staff on areas such as moving and handling. Competency checks were not undertaken to ensure that staff understood and implemented what they had learnt. Accurate records were not maintained of people’s medicines which meant that people were at risk of not receiving their medicines as prescribed.

The agency had expanded relatively quickly and the registered manager’s focus during their first year had been on the direct provision of care. They were open with us about some of the challenges that they had faced in the first year of operation and acknowledged that this had meant that they had not fully carried out some management tasks and oversight. The agency had not identified key risks and, as a result of what we found, we have made requirements in the areas of governance, medicine management, training and recruitment procedures. We have also recommended that they provide clearer guidance to staff on local safeguarding procedures and update their care plans to ensure that staff have the information they need on areas such as consent and working with people with dementia.

Despite the shortfalls, people’s day to day experience of the agency was good. People told us that staff were reliable and punctual. There were clear arrangements to respond to issues outside office hours. Staff were alert to changes in people’s wellbeing and responded appropriately when people became unwell. Care staff maintained good relationships with people who used the service and their families. People told us that staff were obliging and helpful and they were enabled to express their views and have a say in how they were supported.

Assessments were undertaken before people started to use the service and staff were provided with guidance on people’s preferences in an informative care planning document. The agency was described as helpful and people told us that that they addressed any concerns and complaints promptly.

Staff morale was good and staff told us that they well supported by the registered manager who was visible and approachable.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.