The inspection took place on 12 and 13 July 2018 and was unannounced. This was the first inspection since the service was registered on 21 July 2017.

Chelmscare is a domiciliary care agency who provides support to people living in their own home in the community. On the day of our inspection 34 people were being supported with the regulated activity of personal care.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

We found that the provider did not have robust systems in place to ensure people were kept safe. The recruitment process was inconsistent and checks were not always completed before staff started working with people.

The provider did not always follow their own safeguarding process which meant people could have been at risk of harm. Staff had received training in safeguarding but their understanding of the process was not tested by the registered manager.

There were some risk management arrangements in place to help keep people safe, but these were not consistent and were not always current. Staffing levels were not always sufficient to meet people’s needs. People told us overall, they felt safe being supported by staff from Chelmscare.

People were supported to take their medicines and staff had received training. However, they did not routinely have their competencies checked. Care plans were mainly of a tick box nature and lacked personalisation. People, were not always involved in the development and review of their care plan.

Staff received an induction to the service when their employment commenced and completed some refresher training and updates. Staff were not consistently supported in their roles through individual supervision or attendance at team meetings.

People were assisted to eat and drink sufficient amounts to help maintain their health and wellbeing. People were supported to make and attend medical appointments and access a range of healthcare professionals.

Staff requested peoples consent before they provided support. The management and staff worked in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) principles.

People and their relatives told us staff were kind and caring. Staff were aware of people`s likes, dislikes and preferences and overall delivered care and support in accordance with people`s wishes. However, people told us there were a lot of staff changes which impacted on people’s ability to build meaningful relationships with staff.

The service was not always responsive to people`s changing needs. There was a complaints process in place but no concerns or complains had been received.

There was a lack of management overview at the service. There were no systems and processes in place to monitor the overall quality and safety of the service. The registered manager did not always inform CQC of accidents or incidents which they are required to report. There was no evidence of learning from events.

People’s confidential information was stored securely to ensure it remained confidential.