This inspection took place on 16 October 2018 and was announced.

Bee's care agency provides care services to people in their own homes mainly in the Medway area. The care they provided was tailored to people's needs so that people could maintain or regain their independence. This included older people who had been discharged from hospital and needed help with day-to-day tasks like cooking, shopping, washing and dressing and help to maintain their health and wellbeing. Not everyone using the service receives a regulated activity of 'personal care.' CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and administration of medicines. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection, the service was providing personal care to 10 people.

The registered manager was also the provider. 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.

At the last inspection, the service was rated good. At this inspection, we found the service remained overall ‘good.’

Risks continued to be appropriately assessed and mitigated to ensure people were safe. Medicines were managed safely and people had received their medicines as prescribed.

Staff knew what they should do to identify and raise safeguarding concerns. The registered manager knew their responsibilities in relation to keeping people safe from harm.

Effective systems continued to be in place to enable the provider to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service. Accident and incident records were closely monitored, actions were taken in a timely manner to ensure lessons were learnt.

People were happy with their care and support. Staff had built up good relationships with people.

The service provided good quality care and support to people enabling them to live as fulfilled and meaningful lives as possible.

Staff were caring and kind in their approach and had a good rapport with people. People told us they were treated with dignity and respect. People’s privacy was respected.

People were asked about their needs relating to culture, race, religion and sexual orientation in their assessment. This was recorded in their care plan and staff were aware of this.

There were enough staff deployed to meet people’s needs. The provider continued to operate a safe and robust recruitment and selection procedure to make sure staff were suitable and safe to work with people. Staff received training, which enabled them to meet people’s needs. They also received support and supervision to enable them to carry out their roles safely.

People were encouraged to make their own choices about everyday matters. People’s decisions and choices were respected.

People's care plans clearly detailed their care and support needs. People were fully involved with the care planning process. The service had developed care plans which clearly detailed people’s preferences, likes, dislikes, mental health and social needs. Care had been delivered in line with people’s choices. The registered manager reviewed each person’s care with each person as and when necessary.

Where necessary, people were encouraged to have a healthy diet which met their health needs.

People were supported and helped to maintain their health and to access health services when they needed them. The registered manager and staff maintained good communication with other organisations such as the community nursing service, GP and other healthcare services.

People were given information about how to complain. People were actively involved in improving the service. They completed feedback surveys and had regular meetin

This inspection took place on 8 April 2016 and was announced.

Bee’s care agency provides care services to people in their own homes mainly in the Medway area. The care they provided was tailored to people’s needs so that people could maintain or regain their independence. This included older people who had been discharged from hospital who needed help with day-to-day tasks like cooking, shopping, washing and dressing and help to maintain their health and wellbeing. They also provide care so that people’s main carers have ‘respite’ time. There were six people using the service assessed as low risk in terms of the care they needed at the time of our inspection.

There was a registered manager employed at the service. 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 spoke about the staff in a positive light regarding their feelings of being safe and well cared for. They thought that staff were caring and compassionate. Staff were trusted and well thought of by the people they cared for.

The registered manager was supported to manage the service by a senior carer. They assessed people’s needs and planned people’s care to maintain their safety, health and wellbeing. Risks were assessed by staff to protect people. There were systems in place to monitor incidents and accidents.

Staff had received training about protecting people from abuse and showed a good understanding of what their responsibilities were in preventing abuse. Procedures for reporting any concerns were in place. The registered manager knew how and when they should escalate concerns following the local authorities safeguarding protocols.

The registered manager and staff had received training about the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and understood when and how to support peoples best interest if they lacked capacity to make certain decisions about their care.

Working in community settings staff often had to work on their own, but they were provided with good support and an ‘Outside Office Hours’ number to call during evenings and at weekends if they had concerns about people. The service could continue to run in the event of emergencies arising so that people’s care would continue. For example, when there was heavy snow or if there was a power failure at the main office.

Staff were recruited safely and had been through a selection process that ensured they were fit to work with people who needed safeguarding. Recruitment policies were in place that had been followed. Safe recruitment practices included background and criminal records checks prior to staff starting work.

People felt that staff were well trained and understood their needs. They told us that staff looked at their care plans and followed the care as required. People told us that staff discussed their care with them so that they could decide how it would be delivered.

Staff had been trained to administer medicines safely and staff spoke confidently about their skills and abilities to do this well.

The registered manager gave staff guidance about supporting people to eat and drink enough. People were pleased that staff encouraged them to keep healthy through eating a balanced diet and drinking enough fluids. Care plans were kept reviewed and updated.

There were policies in place, which ensured people would be listened to and treated fairly if they complained. The registered manager ensured that people’s care met their most up to date needs and any issues raised were dealt with to people’s satisfaction.

People were happy with the leadership and approachability of the service’s registered manager who was also the provider of the service. They had a clear quality based vision of the service they wanted t