This inspection took place on 21 April 2016 and was announced.

Active Care Professionals care agency provides care services to people in their own homes mainly in the Medway area. The care they provided was tailored to people’s needs so that people could maintain or regain their independence. This included older people who had been discharged from hospital who needed help with day to day tasks like cooking, shopping, washing and dressing and help to maintain their health and wellbeing. At the time of our inspection, there were two people using the service assessed as low risk in terms of the care they needed.

There was a registered manager employed at the service. 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.

The care was predominantly delivered by one member of staff who was also the owner and registered manager of the service. They had the support of one part time member of staff. People spoke about the staff in a positive light regarding their feelings of being safe and well cared for. They thought that staff were caring and compassionate. Staff were trusted and well thought of by the people they cared for.

The registered manager assessed people’s needs and planned people’s care to maintain their safety, health and wellbeing. Risks were assessed by staff to protect people. There were systems in place to monitor incidents and accidents.

Staff had received training about protecting people from abuse. Procedures for reporting any concerns were in place. The registered manager knew how and when they should escalate concerns following the local authorities safeguarding protocols.

Staff had received training about the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and understood when and how to support peoples best interest if they lacked capacity to make certain decisions about their care.

Working in community settings staff often had to work on their own, but they were provided with good support and an ‘Outside Office Hours’ number to call during evenings and at weekends if they had concerns about people. The service could continue to run in the event of emergencies arising so that people’s care would continue. For example, when there was heavy snow or if there was a power failure at the main office.

Staff were recruited safely and had been through a selection process that ensured they were fit to work with people who needed safeguarding. Recruitment policies were in place that had been followed. Safe recruitment practices included background and criminal records checks prior to staff starting work.

There was an up to date policy about the safe administration of medicines. Staff had been trained to administer medicines safely. Staff followed guidance about supporting people to eat and drink enough. Care plans were kept reviewed and updated.

The registered manager had daily contact with people when delivering care. They had a clear quality based vision of the service they wanted to provide and understood how to achieve this. There were policies in place, which ensured people would be listened to and treated fairly if they complained. Audits were effective and risks were monitored by the registered manager to keep people safe. The registered manager ensured that people’s care met their most up to date needs and any issues raised were dealt with to people’s satisfaction.

Currently there is only one person using the service for personal care and one member of staff which is the manager providing care. We spoke to both these people.

The person using the service said that they had been involved in organising the care they needed and they continued to make decisions about their daily lives. They told us that their privacy and dignity were respected.

The person told us that their needs were met by the care staff that visited them, and that the same member of staff provided all their care.

The service had a policy and procedures in place to safeguard people using the service from abuse.

The manager had recruitment systems in place and was in the process of recruiting a new member of care staff.

The manager had systems for quality assurance ready, but as the service had only been provided for one client for approximately two weeks, they had not yet been started.