This was the first inspection of the service following its registration with us in November 2015.

Aroma Care People Ltd. is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the service supported 45 people with personal care and employed 17 care staff.

The office visit took place on 13 June 2017 and was announced. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange to be there and for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

A requirement of the provider’s registration is that they have a registered manager. There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was also the provider of the service.

People said they felt safe using the service and staff understood how to keep people safe and protect people from abuse. There were processes to minimise risks to people’s safety. These included procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care and for managing people’s medicines safely. The suitability of staff was checked during recruitment procedures to make sure, as far as possible, they were safe to work with people who used the service.

The managers and staff followed the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). Staff respected decisions people made about their care and gained people’s consent before they provided personal care.

There were enough staff to provide the care and support people required. People told us staff were friendly and caring and had the right skills to provide the care they required. Staff received an induction when they started working for the service and completed training to support them in meeting people’s needs effectively.

People said staff arrived around the time expected and stayed long enough to provide the care they required. People said they received care from staff they knew. Care staff understood people’s needs and abilities as they visited the same people regularly and had time to get to know people and read their care plans. Care plans provided guidance for staff about people’s care needs and instructions of what they needed to do on each call.

Staff felt supported to do their work effectively and said the managers were approachable and knowledgeable. There was an ‘out of hours’ on call system, which ensured management support and advice was always available for staff.

People knew how to complain and information about making a complaint was available for people. People and staff said they could raise any concerns or issues with the management team, knowing they would be listened to and acted on.

The provider’s quality monitoring system included asking people for their views about the quality of the service. This was through telephone conversations, visits to review people’s care and satisfaction questionnaires. The management team checked people received the care they needed by reviewing people’s care records and through feedback from people and staff. There was a programme of other checks and audits which the provider used to monitor and improve the service.