This inspection took place on 11 of April 2017 and was announced.

Alpha-Imperial Private Ltd is registered to provide personal care and support to people living within their own homes. The service caters for older people and younger adults with needs relating to dementia, learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorders, mental health, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment. There were 16 people using this service at the time of our inspection.

The service had a registered manager. This 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 told us the staff were caring and kind and had a good sense of humour. Relatives said staff went out of their way to build positive relationships with their family members. Staff understood the importance of getting to know the people they supported and understanding what was important to them and what they liked to talk about.

People said they felt safe using the service and staff knew how to protect the people they supported from harm. If people were at risk in any areas of their lives staff mostly had the information they needed to keep them safe.

There were enough staff available to keep people safe and meet their needs. If people needed two or more staff to support them safely they were provided. People and relatives said staff assisted them to move safely and skilfully. Staff were trained to prompt or administer medicines and did this safely in the way people wanted.

Staff had the training they needed to provide effective care and were knowledgeable about the people they supported and how best to meet their needs. They had regular supervision sessions and attended meetings where training and good practice was discussed.

The management team and staff had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and the need to gain people’s consent before providing them with care and support. When people did not have the capacity to consent, best interests decisions were made in conjunction with people’s relatives, representatives, and health and social care professionals.

Staff provided assistance with eating and drinking to people who needed this and respected their food choices. They supported people to maintain good health and access health care service when they needed to. If a person’s medical condition changed or they deteriorated in any way staff contacted health care professionals to ensure people’s health care needs were met.

Staff told us the management team’s caring and innovative approach inspired them in their work. They said the management team valued both the staff and the people using the service which made Alpha-Imperial Ltd a good place to work.

Care plans were personalised and included information about people likes, dislikes and preferences. They included advice to staff on how best to communicate with the people. People and relatives were involved in care planning to help ensure staff knew how best to support people in the way they wanted taking their social, health, and cultural needs into account.

The management team and staff understood the importance of people’s calls being on time. People said they usually were, and if staff were ever running late they were informed of this by telephone. Staff told us they rarely had any difficulty getting to their calls punctually as their calls were clustered in the same area.

Staff told us the care plans were of good quality and included the information they needed to provide people with responsive care. They were regularly reviewed and that people using the service and their families were involved in reviews and their contribution recorded.

People knew how to raise concerns about the service if they needed to. The provider welcomed any feedb