This inspection was carried out on 24 and 25 November 2016 and was announced with short notice.

Park View Domiciliary Care agency provides care and support services to people with a learning disability living in their own homes. The service is based in an office in of one of the buidlings that houses people’s flats. The office is open during office hours and an on call system is in place outside of these times. The service currently provides personal care to seven people in Deal, who share different houses and some people live in a flat.

The service has 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 in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The service had a person centred culture where people were supported to have the lifestyle they chose. Individual meetings were held with people to plan their care and discuss their goals and aspirations, so that the service gave support to people in the way they wanted.

Each person had a support plan that they had been involved in writing and updating. Pictures and photographs were included to make the plans meaningful to people. Staff had a good understanding of how people preferred to communicate and adjusted their support to meet peoples’ individual needs. Staff knew people very well and people told us they were comfortable in telling staff about any concerns or complaints they might have. People said that the staff would listen to them and act on their concerns.

People were supported to be as independent as possible and try new activities to develop their skills. Risk assessments were completed to make sure people were protected from unnecessary accidents. People were given the right support to take their medicines safely.

Active healthy lifestyles were encouraged and people were supported to prepare their meals and eat healthily. People were helped to manage any health conditions as well as they could. Health and social care professionals were involved and people were supported to attend healthcare appointments.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The Act requires that, as far as possible, people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible. The service was supporting people to make decisions about their health and wellbeing. Staff respected when people made unwise decisions but made sure people had all the information they needed and involved other professionals.

People can only be deprived of their liberty so that they can receive care and treatment when this is in their best interests and legally authorised under the MCA. In supported living services applications to deprive a person of their liberty must be made to the Court of Protection. The service was working within the principles of the MCA. The provider took advice and at this time no applications to deprive people of their liberty needed to be made.

People said they were well supported by the staff and registered manager. One person said they felt much better now than before they the service, commenting, “I get good food and my tablets every day and I feel safer here too.”

Everyone using the service was supported with the lifestyle they chose. Some people liked going out and having an active lifestyle, some people preferred plans and structure and others liked to have a quieter more sedentary lifestyle. People kept in touch with families and friends, helped as needed by staff. There were links with the local and wider community and people had fr

People were given the support and information to be able to make important decisions about their health and wellbeing. Time was allocated for staff support and people said they received good quality care.

Suitable arrangements were in place to make sure medication was managed and administered safely.

Staff we spoke with had a good knowledge of people's needs and knew how they liked their care provided.

Records were clearly written, in good order and stored securely to maintain people’s confidentiality.

We spoke with three people using the service. People were complimentary about the service provided. They said that they discussed their care needs with the staff and were supported in the way they preferred.

People said they talked to staff if they had a problem. People said the staff helped them and listened to them. People were given the support they needed to make decisions about their care and support. We saw that staff gave person centred support that varied depending on each person's level of ability and needs.

Staff received relevant training and said they were confident to support the people using the service. Staff said they enjoyed working at the service and said they were well supported by the manager.

There was an effective informal quality monitoring of the service which included gathering people's views and using these as a basis to determine future developments.