Personal Care Specialists Ltd is a domiciliary care agency and provides personal care to a range of people living in their own houses and flats in the community of north Leeds. It provides a service to older people, including those living with dementia and mental health needs, sensory impairments, physical disabilities and younger adults. The service is managed from its premises in the suburb of Oakwood.

This inspection took place on 28 November 2017 and was announced.

At our last inspection in September 2015 we rated the service as ‘Good’. Since the last inspection the service had grown in size and was delivering personal care to more people than it had been previously. At the time of the inspection the service was providing support to 60 older people.

At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of ‘Good’ and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on-going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. We have changed the rating in the well led domain to ‘Requires Improvement’, because we found improvements were needed to ensure people received their calls in a timelier manner, although the provider had plans to address this issue.

This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

There was a registered manager for the service. 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 who used the service were supported by staff who helped protect them from potential abuse. Staff had been safely recruited to ensure they did not pose an identified risk to people. Training had been provided to care staff to ensure they knew how to administer medicines safely. Assessments about potential risks had been completed to ensure staff knew how to keep people safe from harm. The service was actively recruiting additional staff to ensure there were always enough staff available to meet people’s needs in a timely way. People told us they had a largely consistent set of staff for support who did not rush.

People were involved and consulted about decisions and their consent was obtained by staff to ensure their support met their wishes and preferences. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff assisted them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Staff had developed positive relationships with people and treated them with consideration and kindness. Staff encouraged people to maintain a healthy diet and upheld their personal dignity. People told us staff respected their wishes for privacy and supported them to be as independent as possible and reduce risks of potential social isolation. People’s support plans contained evidence of assistance provided to ensure their health and wellbeing was maintained with involvement from medical professionals when this was required. People told us they knew how to raise a complaint.

Systems were in place to ensure the quality of the service could be monitored. Audits and checks were carried out to enable potential trends and patterns to be analysed and positive action to be taken when required to help the service to learn and develop, although we found this had not always occurred in a planned and timely way. The service welcomed people’s feedback and suggestions to help it improve. People told us that management were approachable and worked in partnership with them. Staff told us they enjoyed working for the service and that management were supportive of them.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

Personal Care Specialists Ltd provides home care service in the Leeds area from premises in Oakwood North Yorkshire. At the time of the inspection the service was providing care and support to 9 people and employed ten members of staff.

We inspected the office premises on 22 September 2015. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service. Our last inspection of the service took place on the 15 August 2013 and at that time we found the agency was meeting the regulations we looked at.

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.

We found the organisation’s staff recruitment and selection procedures were robust which helped to ensure people were supported by staff suitable to work in the caring profession. We also saw all staff had received mandatory training and that one to one supervision meetings took place which helped staff to carry out their roles effectively. We found the staff disciplinary procedures designed to protect people who used the service from poor work practices were being followed.

The support plans we looked at were person centred and were reviewed on a regular basis to make sure they provided accurate and up to date information and were fit for purpose.

The staff we spoke with were able to describe how people preferred their care and support to be delivered and the importance of treating people with respect in their own homes. People who used the service and their relatives told us staff were very caring and always provided care and support in line with their agreed support plan.

The registered manager told us they were looking at the feasibility of introducing a call monitoring system which would identify if staff had been held up and were running late.

The provider had policies and procedures relating to the safe administration of medication in people's own homes which gave guidance to staff on their roles and responsibilities.

There was a complaints procedure available which enabled people to raise concerns or complaints about the care or treatment they received. The people we spoke with told us they were aware of the complaints procedure and would have no hesitation in making a formal complaint if they had any concerns about the standard of care provided.

We saw the management of the service had a robust quality assurance monitoring system that continually monitored and identified shortfalls in service provision.