The inspection took place on 13 and 28 July 2016 and was announced. The service has not been previously inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Sandy Mount is a purpose built 41-apartment complex, which allows tenants to live as independently as possible whilst providing flexible care and support to meet their needs. It has a number of communal facilities including a lounge, activity room, therapy suite, hairdressing salon, landscaped garden and a restaurant. This service is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry out the regulated activity of personal care. At the time of the inspection 24 people were being supported with personal care.

There was a registered manager in post although they were absent at the time of our 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 had received training in how to keep people safe. All the staff we spoke with demonstrated they understood how to ensure people were safeguarded against abuse and they knew the procedure to follow in an emergency situation such as if a person had fallen.

Risks were managed at the service and there were systems and processes in place to ensure risks were minimised. The service operated a positive risk approach to promote people’s independence in their own home.

Staff completed the Care Certificate on taking up their post in addition to the registered providers own induction programme of classroom based learning.

Staff received regular training to ensure they developed skills and knowledge to perform in their role and regular supervision and appraisals to support their development.

Staff had received training in the Mental Capacity Act 2005. We found staff could confidently define the principles of the Act and were able to describe how they would support people lacking in capacity. They told us they would always assume capacity and just because a person made unwise decisions this did not mean they lacked capacity.

All the people living at Sandy Mount spoke highly about the kind and caring staff who ensured their privacy and dignity was maintained at all times. Staff encouraged people to remain independent and told us the vision of the service was to keep people independent.

People received care that met their needs, choices and preferences. The service could evidence people had been involved in the compilation of their support plans in line with what mattered to the person.

The service had a formal and informal complaints system. Overall responsibility for ensuring complaints were responded to with a satisfactory outcome rested with a Quality Manager who was alerted to the complaint through an electronic recording system.

Processes were in place for reflecting upon and evaluating the quality of the provision and these were being developed further as lessons were learnt from the registered providers extra care facilities.

There had been an investment into developing the quality of the service provided by the registered provider working in partnership with the local authority.

We found an open and transparent culture meant staff understood their roles and responsibilities.