This inspection took place on 10 May 2017 and was announced. The registered provider was given short notice because the location is a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be available.

Twelve Trees Homecare Limited is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care for people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 85 people.

There was a manager at the service who was registered with CQC. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People we spoke with were satisfied with the quality of care they had received and made positive comments about the staff.

Relatives we spoke with were also satisfied with the quality of care their family member had received.

We saw there were sufficient staff to provide a regular team of care staff to people who used the service. People we spoke with told us care staff turned up on time and stayed the full amount of time stated in their care plan.

We found there were arrangements in place to ensure people received medicines at the right time.

There were recruitment procedures in place so people were cared for by suitably qualified staff who had been assessed as safe to work with people.

Care staff underwent an induction and shadowing period prior to supporting people on their own, and had regular updates to their training to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to carry out their roles.

Staff were supported to deliver care safely and to an appropriate standard.

People’s care records showed that people had a written plan in place with details of their planned care. We saw they had been personalised to reflect their personal preferences.

People were supported with their health and dietary needs, where this was part of their plan of care.

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.

We saw there was a robust complaints process in place to respond to concerns or complaints by people who used the service, their representative or by staff.

We found some concerns relating to records. We saw the documentation used to complete an assessment of a person’s potential risks required improvement. Although we did not find this had negatively impacted on people who used the service, the lack of clear guidance for staff to follow presented a risk that staff may use inconsistent and ineffective practices whilst caring for people.

There were planned and regular checks completed by the registered manager and nominated individual to assess and improve the quality of the service provided.

The registered provider actively sought the views of people and their representatives to continuously improve the service.