A comprehensive inspection took place on 26 and 29 June 2018 and was announced. At the last inspection in February 2016, we found a breach of regulation which was related to the management of complaints.

The purpose of this inspection was to see if improvements had been made with the management of complaints and to review the quality of the service currently being provided for people. At this inspection we found the service had met the requirement notice regarding complaints. Although, we did find other concerns with the safe management if medicines and the recording of people’s finances.

Reed Specialist Recruitment, known to people, their relatives and staff as ‘Reed’, is a recruitment agency based in Leeds who also operate a personal care service. The service provides home care, where they provide care and support to people in their own homes; and a community service where staff members provide support and personal care to people with learning difficulties in the community. Services are also provided to children and families. At the time of this inspection the service was supporting 13 people with a regulated activity and over 40 people in total.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults, younger disabled adults and children.

Not everyone using Reed Specialist Recruitment Limited – Leeds received a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

At the time of the inspection the service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like 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.

Medicines management was not always safe; medication administration records were not always accurate and staff had not always been assessed as competent.

People, relatives and staff all told us the management of the service was very good. They said the registered manager and office staff were approachable and responsive. We found there were systems to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided, although, these had not identified the concerns found at this inspection.

There was a procedure in place which enabled people to raise any concerns or complaints. Complaints were investigated and responded to in a timely way.

When necessary, staff involved relevant healthcare professionals or the emergency services to make sure people's health care needs were met. People's individual dietary needs and preferences were planned for and met.

The service had effective systems to manage staff rotas, match staff skills with people’s needs and identify what capacity they had to take on new care packages. We found recruitment processes were robust. Staff had opportunities for on-going development and the registered manager ensured they received induction, supervision, annual appraisals and training. We noted some training had not been recorded to give a full overview of what staff had completed.

People and relatives we spoke with told us they were very happy with the service they received and staff were kind, caring and treated them with dignity and respect. We saw people had access to activities within the community. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People’s care and support plans contained information about what was important to the person. Staff were confident people received good care and said the care and support p

The inspection took place on 16 February 2016 and was announced. We carried out an inspection in October 2013, where we found the provider was meeting all the regulations we inspected.

Reeds Specialist Recruitment is a recruitment agency based in Leeds who also operate a personal care service. The service they provide is a home care service where they provide care and support to people in their own home and, a community service where care workers provide support and personal care to people with learning difficulties in the community. Services are also provided to children and families.

The service had 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.

People and/or relatives were comfortable contacting the office if they needed to discuss any concerns. However, detailed final outcomes had not been sent to the complainant following the investigation of complaints and the service could not evidence response timescales were being met.

We found care and support plans contained some very detailed and comprehensive information but some sections had not been reviewed since 2013 and we found duplication of documents. We also found it was difficult to easily retrieve information. Staff were confident people received good care and were able to tell us about people’s likes and dislikes, needs and wishes.

People and relatives we spoke with told us they were very happy with the service they received and staff were kind and caring, treated them with dignity and respected their choices. People received assistance with meals and healthcare when required. We found there were appropriate arrangements for the safe handling of medicines.

People who used the service told us they felt safe with the staff and the care they were provided with. We found there were appropriate systems in place to protect people from risk of harm. People told us they made decisions about their care and we saw they or their relative had signed to say they consented to care. The registered manager had completed a train the training course in the Mental Capacity Act (2005) (MCA).

We found people were cared for, or supported by, appropriately trained staff, however, staff training and supervision was been reviewed by the management team. Robust recruitment procedures were in place. People we spoke with told us they were happy with the care they received and were complimentary about the staff who supported them. People said their visit times suited their wishes and staff always stayed the agreed length of time.

People who used the service, relatives and staff all told us the management of the service was very good. Effective systems were in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided.

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

People told us they were happy with the care provided and were involved with their care and support needs. People and/or their relative had contributed their preferences and their experiences were taken into account in relation to how care and support was delivered. One relative told us, “The care plan is reviewed regularly and I am happy with the content.”

People’s care plans contained a level of information that ensured their needs were being met. We spoke with five people and/or their relatives who told us they were happy with the care and support they received. One relative told us, “Brilliant care I cannot fault it.” Another relative told us, “The regular staff have his interests at heart but there has been different people coming and my son needs structure.”

Medicines were prescribed and given to people appropriately. Appropriate arrangements were in place in relation to management of medicines. The provider had clear guidance that outlined how medicines should be obtained and protocols that staff must follow. Staff we spoke with said they had received medication training.

We found people were supported by sufficient numbers of qualified, skilled and experienced staff which met people’s needs. People we spoke with told us there were enough staff and they always turned up on time.

There were quality monitoring programmes in place, which included people giving feedback about their care and support. This provided a good overview of the quality of the service’s provided.

We spoke with three people who used the service. People told us they were happy with the care provided and were involved in planning their care and support needs. Everyone we spoke with told us their dignity was respected and confidentiality was always maintained. They said that staff encouraged them to be as independent as possible.

We spoke with four relatives who told us they had been involved in the development of their relative’s care and care plan. They also told us they were able to make changes and contribute to their relative’s care if they wished. They said their relative’s dignity was respected and independence was routinely encouraged.

People who used the service told us they were happy with the service and care and they were well looked after. Everyone we spoke with said they were getting the same care worker for each of their visits. However, other members of staff were organised when regular care workers were on leave or sick.

We spoke with four relatives who told us they were happy with the care and their family member was well looked after. They told us that the staff understood the care needs of their family member. They said that they were contacted by the member of staff straight away if there were any concerns regarding their family member.

People and their relative’s we spoke with told us that they felt safe with the care worker. They said they would tell the care worker or contact the office if they were worried about anything.

The people we spoke with told us they were happy with the service. They told us that they knew how to raise concerns or make a complaint.

People told us that on most occasions there are enugh staff to provide the care required. One person we spoke with told us that they thought their care worker was "brilliant." However, one person told us that on some occasions the care worker does not understand the needs of their relative as they have not read the care plan. They told us this happens when it is not the regular care worker who attends and it is a care worker who has been asked to work at short notice.

We spoke with a relative of one person receiving care from Reed Specialist Recruitment and they told us they had recently received a new copy of the care plan but it was out of date. We were told that a lot of the information in the care plan was not relevant. One member of staff also told us, “care plans can be out of date, they need to be updated."

The service is responsive to the requests being raised by relatives and the people they support.