This inspection took place on 5 October 2017. The inspection was announced. The provider was given two days’ notice of our inspection. This was to ensure the registered manager and staff were available when we visited the agency’s office.

This was the first time the service had been inspected. SureCare Rugby is a small domiciliary care agency which provides personal care for people in their own homes. Most people received support from staff several times each day. On the day of our inspection visit the agency was providing support to five people.

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. There was a registered manager in place at the time of our inspection visit, who was also the provider. We refer to the registered manager as the manager in the body of this report.

Staff understood their responsibilities to protect people from the risk of abuse, and other risks that related to their care and support. The manager checked staff’s suitability for their role before they started working at the service. The manager made sure there were enough staff to support people safely.

Staff offered people choice and respected their decisions. People were complimentary about the staff who supported them, describing them as kind and caring.

Care was delivered based on the individual needs of each person. People and their relatives were included in planning how they were cared for and supported, and people were supported by a consistent staff team who had the skills to meet their needs. People were referred to healthcare services when their health needs changed.

Staff knew people well and respected their privacy and dignity. People told us they knew how to make a complaint if they needed to. The manager had procedures in place to respond to complaints in a timely way.

The manager/provider checked the quality of the service and acted to continuously improve it; people, their relatives and staff were encouraged to share their opinions about the quality of the service and these were listened to.