Alina Homecare Specialist Care - Surrey is registered for ‘personal care’. This service provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats, including ‘supported living’ scheme so that people can live in their own home as independently as possible. CQC does not regulate the premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Alina Homecare Specialist Care – Surrey currently provides a service to young adults some of whom have complex health needs, autism and learning disabilities. At the time of inspection five people were receiving support with personal care from this service.

This inspection took place on 5 December 2018 and was announced. 48 hours before the inspection we contacted the service to let them know that we will be coming to inspect them. We wanted to make sure that the management team would be available on the day of inspection.

This service has not previously been inspected.

The service was in the process of recruiting a new manager who would be registering with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.

Staff were aware of potential risks to people and followed guidance to ensure safe care delivery for people. Policies and procedures were in place to protect people from risk of abuse and incidents and accident taking place. The service followed appropriate staff recruitment processes to employ suitable staff to take care of people. People received their medicines as prescribed and staff followed the providers procedures to administer ‘when required’ medicines safely. There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people’s care and support needs.

People’s care needs were appropriately identified and supported making sure they received person-centred care. People had access to healthcare professionals when they needed it. Staff supported people to have their meals according to their dietary requirements. The staff team applied the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) principles in practice to support people to make choices and decisions. Staff had support to update their knowledge and skills to ensure they carried out their duties in line with their role expectations.

People’s relatives described staff as kind, friendly and caring. People were encouraged to make choices about their daily routines and the activities that they wanted to take part in. The service took actions to protect people’s rights and provided easy to read information to support people to understand the decisions they were making. People were encouraged to access the community independently to increase their social inclusion. Confidentiality principles were followed to protect important information about people.

Care records held information on the support people required to go out in the community and meet their complex health needs. People were provided with opportunities to give feedback about the services they received. Information was available about people’s communication needs and the support they required to engage in conversations with staff.

There was a good leadership at the service where the staff team felt well supported in their job. Quality assurance processes were followed to check if people’s care records were up-to-date and reflected their care needs. The staff team worked together to support people during the transition period.