The inspection took place on 12 and 14 June 2018. We announced the inspection at short notice as Amicus Homecare is a small agency and we needed to ensure the registered manager was available on these dates. This was the first inspection of Amicus Homecare.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 10 people.

Not everyone using Amicus Homecare receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

There was a registered manager in post. 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 we spoke with were very satisfied with the service they received. They told us staff were caring and reliable and they were confident their visit would always take place on time. Everyone using the service knew the registered manager and was complimentary about her.

People felt safe with staff and told us they were competent and respected their privacy and dignity.

Staff enjoyed working for the agency and received support, training and supervision. They told us they had enough time to deliver a good standard of care and did not feel rushed.

People’s care was delivered in the way they preferred. The provider had developed comprehensive care plans which took into account people’s personalities, history, likes and dislikes.

The service was well organised and had effective systems in place to manage quality and performance.