The inspection of Caremark (Kirklees) took place on 5 July 2017, with follow up telephone calls being made to people who used the service, their relatives and staff on 6 and 10 July 2017. The inspection was announced. The service had been registered with the Care Quality Commission since December 2015 and this was the first inspection of the service.

Caremark (Kirklees) is a domiciliary care provider, based in Kirklees, providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes. There were 111 people using the service at the time of our inspection.

The service had 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People and their family members told us they felt safe. Staff had received safeguarding training in order to keep people safe and staff demonstrated a good understanding of what to do if they were concerned anyone was at risk of abuse. There were robust recruitment practices in place, which meant staff had been recruited safely. Risks had been assessed and reduced where possible.

Accidents and incidents were appropriately recorded and records showed staff were aware of actions to take in an emergency. There was an effective out of hours’ service, in case of emergencies.

Staff were trained to manage and administer medicines to people and their competency was regularly assessed. Medication administration records were fully completed and regularly audited.

People received effective care and support to meet their needs. People and their relatives felt staff had the necessary skills and training to provide effective care and support. Staff told us they felt supported and we saw staff had received induction training as well as ongoing training and supervision.

Care and support was provided in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. We saw from the care files we reviewed, consent had been sought and obtained from people, prior to their care and support being provided.

People we spoke with told us staff were caring. The staff we spoke with were enthusiastic and were motivated to provide good quality care. Staff told us how they respected people’s privacy and dignity and the people we spoke with confirmed this. People were encouraged to maintain their independence.

Care and support plans were detailed and personalised, taking into account people’s choices and preferences and people’s needs were reviewed regularly. People told us they could make their own choices. People told us the service was responsive and flexible to their needs and local commissioners confirmed this.

Regular audits and quality assurance checks took place, in order to drive improvement within the service and feedback was given to staff in order to improve practice. Staff told us they felt supported and people felt able to contact the office in the knowledge they would be listened to. Complaints were managed and responded to effectively.