The inspection took place on 18 and 19 April 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice as the service provides a domiciliary care service. We wanted to ensure that people were expecting our calls and were available to speak with us.

Alina Homecare – Horsham is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care to people living in their own houses and flats. In addition, this service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing in the same building where the service's office is based. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is bought or rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service. The service provides support to younger and older adults, people who were living with a physical disability, mental health illness and dementia. The service was also registered to provide care for children aged 0-18 years of age; although at the time of the inspection no children were receiving a service. On the days of inspection there were 89 people who received support with the regulated activity of personal care.

Alina Homecare provides care at home as well as live-in services for people across the South of England. People can fund their own care or have this publicly funded. Alina Homecare Horsham is part of a group of services owned by the provider, Alina Homecare Limited. The service had a registered manager who had been registered in January 2018. A registered manager is a ‘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 home is run.

At our last inspection on 16 June 2015 we rated the service as ‘Good’. Following our last inspection, the service changed their address and de-registered. Therefore, this inspection is the first comprehensive inspection at the new address and is being treated as a newly registered service. At the inspection on 18 and 19 April 2018 we found that the provider needed to make improvements to some areas of practice. The service was rated as 'Requires Improvement'.

People’s consent was gained on a day-to-day basis and they were involved in their care. People's wishes and preferences were respected and care was person-centred and tailored to their needs. Although the management and staff had an awareness of the legislation that related to gaining people's consent, this had not always been adhered to in practice.

Most people and staff thought that the service was well-led. Comments from people included, “They are running it really well" and “Absolutely first class, very good”. However, some people told us that at times people did not always receive their visits on time or for the required duration. The monitoring and action taken to rectify this had improved, however, still required further embedding in practice. Some people told us that when contacting the office about changes to their care that their requests were not always listened to. These are areas of practice that are in need of improvement.

Most people told us that staff listened to their requests and that their care was adapted to meet their needs. However, some people and relatives did not feel that their feedback or views were listened to or respected. This is an area of practice in need of improvement.

Most people were complimentary about staff’s practice and told us that they had the skills required to meet people’s needs. Staff had access to learning and development that the provider considered essential to their roles. In addition, the provider had recently introduced a training academy that could provide bespoke training for staff when required.

Efforts had been made to gather informa