The inspection took place on 7 August 2018 and was an announced inspection. This was the first inspection of the service at its current location. The service was previously run from a different location within South Gloucestershire.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. The service predominantly provides care to people at the end of their lives. At the time of our inspection, 12 people were receiving care.

There was a registered manager in place, although they were due to go on long term planned leave at the time of our inspection. Plans were in place to cover the registered manager’s absence.

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 were very positive about the care they received from Blakehill. Comments included, “They look after me really, really well”, “wouldn’t change them for the world” and “very happy with them”. It was evident that strong positive relationships had been built between people and the staff that supported them.

People’s care was reviewed regularly to ensure that it continued to meet their needs. Nobody we spoke with had cause to complain but told us they would feel able to if necessary.

People received a safe service. There were systems in place to monitor that calls were taking place as planned. People confirmed that staff always attended as expected. There were occasional difficulties with staff running late but people told us they were always informed if this was the case. We discussed with the registered manager how some more detail in their care documents around medicines would be helpful to further reduce the risks of errors occurring. However overall systems for administering medicines were safe.

Staff were all positive about their training and support and received regular supervision. This helped the registered manager monitor their performance and development needs. Staff received specific training in end of life care to enable them meet the needs of people they supported.

The service was well-led. Staff felt well supported and people receiving care were all positive about the service received. There were systems in place to monitor that the quality and safety of the service.