The inspection took place on 29, 30 September and 5 October 2016 and was announced. The Care Division, Dorchester is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection, the service was providing support to 18 people. The service was run from an office in Herringston. The service provided a combination of live in support and shorter visits with people in their own homes.

The service had 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.

People and their relatives told us they felt safe with the staff who provided their care and support. Staff were aware of their responsibilities in protecting people from harm and knew how to report any concerns about people's safety or wellbeing. People had individual risk assessments giving staff the guidance and information they needed to support people safely.

People were supported by staff who were familiar to them and there were enough staff to support people.

People received their medicines as prescribed and we saw that they were stored safely and recording was accurate and regularly audited.

Staff had regular contact with the management and were encouraged to speak with them whenever they needed to. Supervisions were regular and staff were encouraged to discuss and raise any issues and to consider further development and training.

People received care and support from staff who had the skills and training to meet their needs. Staff spoke positively about the training offered and as well as mandatory subjects, undertook training in specific topics including Autism and Epilepsy which reflected the individual needs of the people they were supporting.

People were supported to make decisions or to be involved in best interests decisions where they were unable to make decisions for themselves. Staff understood the relevant legislation around this and records were robust.

Staff understood how to offer people choice and we saw that people were involved in choices about all aspects of their support in ways they were able to understand.

People were supported by staff in a way which was kind and respectful. We observed a relaxed atmosphere between people and staff and interactions were friendly and showed that people were comfortable with the staff who visited them in their homes. Staff ensured that they were mindful about how to maintain people’s privacy and dignity.

People were engaged with activities that reflected their assessed needs, preferences and strengths. This included some employment opportunities for people, informal outings and more regular scheduled activities. Where people were working to achieve goals these were recorded in a way that supported people’s understanding of these goals.

Relatives were regularly contacted to discuss any issues and were involved in reviews of their relatives care. Records were person centred and detailed, they gave histories of people and focussed on what people liked and what their interests were.

People, relatives and staff felt that the management of the service was good and told us that they were able to contact someone in the office when they needed to, support was also available out of hours.

There was an open culture and staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities. Staff were encouraged to raise issues and discuss queries and felt valued in their role. There were regular staff meetings where practice and ideas were discussed.

The registered managed encouraged best practice by linking with other organisations and ensuring they provided staff with regular updates about the service and any policy changes.

Quality assurance was robust and included checks carr

People's needs were assessed and care and treatment was planned and delivered in line with their individual support plan. Care records identified people`s needs and provided clear details about how care should be delivered and preferences respected. We observed that staff were respectful and caring towards people when supporting them. Staff told us that where possible they supported people to access their local community facilities. One person told us that staff supported them to “go wherever I want to go”.

Staff demonstrated knowledge on how and where to report safeguarding issues. Staff told us that they were confident in reporting any concerns and had received appropriate safeguarding training.

Staff received appropriate training and regular supervision which enabled them to support people safely and effectively.

The provider had an effective system in place to identify, assess and manage risks to the health, safety and welfare of people using the service and others.