The inspection was announced and took place on 29 June 2017. Wolverhampton City Council Home Assisted Reablement Programme (HARP) team provides a short term reablement programme to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 48 people receiving support from the service.

There was a registered manager in post 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.

People and their relatives were positive about the care provided by the service and said that they felt safe with the staff who supported them. Staff knew how to recognise the signs of potential abuse and knew the reporting system to keep people safe. Risks to people were assessed and reviewed regularly to ensure care remained appropriate for people’s needs. There were sufficient numbers of trained staff to meet people’s needs. People received their medicines as prescribed by staff who had been assessed as competent to give people’s medicines safely.

A thorough recruitment and induction process was in place to ensure people were supported by staff who had the skills and knowledge to care for them. People were involved in decisions about how they wanted their support needs met. Staff sought people’s consent before providing support. Staff respected people’s choices. People were supported to have sufficient to eat and drink and to access further healthcare support when required.

People said staff were kind and caring. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity. People were encouraged to give their feedback and views about the quality of the service they received.

Care was regularly reviewed to ensure it was reflective of people’s needs. There was a system in place to record and investigate complaints and we saw any concerns were dealt with appropriately.

People felt the service was very well run and the management team approachable. Staff were confident in their roles and were aware of their responsibilities. Quality audit processes were in place and completed regularly to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided. People were happy to recommend the service to family and friends based on their own experiences.