Our inspection took place on 14 July 2017 and was announced.

The Parvaaz Project is a community-based service for people with a learning disability, situated in a residential part of Slough, Berkshire. The service provides multiple different types of support, including personal care, community transport and a day centre. Only personal care is regulated by law, and our inspection has included evidence about this and not other support offered by the service. The service provides care for children and younger adults. At the time of our inspection, about six people received personal care, although the service provided support to about 30 people and this was increasing.

The service must have 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager. However, this registered manager was not in post. The registered manager had not cancelled their registration with us when they left their position, and therefore we removed them from the register as part of our inspection. We could see from our records that the current manager at the time of our inspection was completing their application to register with us.

This is the first inspection of the service since they registrered with us.

People were protected against abuse or neglect. Staff attended regular training that ensured their knowledge of safeguarding people was up-to-date. People had personalised risk assessments tailored to their support requirements. We saw sufficient staff were deployed to provide people’s support. We made recommendations about the employment application form and the service’s medicines policy.

Staff received appropriate support from the service and management to ensure their knowledge, skills and experience were appropriate for their roles. The service was compliant with the provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People had access and support to visit community healthcare professionals.

Staff at The Parvaaz Project were caring. The service had received many compliments about the care received, and relatives we surveyed felt staff were kind. People could not participate in care planning themselves, but staff worked with other healthcare professionals to ensure that support was suitable. The service had appropriately considered communication barriers and put strategies in place to ensure key messages were delivered to families who relied on the support from care workers.

People had detailed care plans which were regularly reviewed. We saw care plans contained detailed information relevant to each person. The service had an appropriate complaints system in place.

The service was well-led. There was a positive workplace culture and staff felt that management listened to what they had to say. We saw there were a limited number of checks by the management and provider to measure the safety and quality of care. We made a recommendation about the use of an action plan or service improvement plan.