About the service: Cotswold Carers Ltd provides personal care and support to people living in their own home. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting 10 people who required personal care.

For more details, please see the full report which is on CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

People’s experience of using this service:

• People and their relatives told us they were happy with the service they received and felt safe amongst the staff who supported them.

• People highly praised the caring nature of staff and told us staff were polite and they respected their dignity and privacy. Relatives also confirmed that they were extremely happy with the service provided by Cotswold Carers Ltd.

• People were involved in the assessment of their care and staff always asked for people’s consent before they supported them.

• People were encouraged to retain their independence and make decisions about their care.

• People’s care plans provided staff with the information they needed to support people and the management of people’s individual risks.

• A consistent staff team ensured people received care from staff who were familiar with their needs.

• Improvement had been made to the records relating to the recruitment of staff.

• People received their medicines in a safe and timely manner and were referred to health care services when their needs changed.

• Staff were trained and supported to carry out their role and were knowledgeable about good care practices and their responsibilities to protect people from harm and abuse.

• Improvement had been made in the management and quality assurance systems to monitor the quality of the service. However, improvement was needed in the effectiveness of the monitoring of the management of people’s medicines.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated: Requires Improvement (Last report was published on 28 February 2018). Following the last inspection, the provider provided us with an action plan on how they would meet the breach of regulations relating to the recruitment of staff.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating at the last inspection. We also followed up on the actions taken by the provider to meet the breach of regulations at our previous inspection.

Follow up: The rating of this inspection and the information and intelligence that we receive about the service will determine the timeframe of our next inspection.

This inspection took place on 16 January 2018 and was announced. Cotswold Carers Ltd is a domiciliary care service which provides services to people in their own homes. They were providing personal care to seven people. This was our first inspection of the service since they had registered with the Care Quality Commission.

A registered manager was in place as required by their conditions of registration. 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.

People’s needs were assessed to ensure the service could meet them and their support was varied and tailored to meet their needs. Staff worked closely with people’s families to ensure there was a holistic approach to people’s health and well-being. People’s risks had been identified and were being managed by staff who knew them well. Plans were in place to update people’s care records to ensure they fully reflected their preferred routines, preferences and management of risks. The systems to manage people medicines were being reviewed and updated to reflect the provider’s medicines policy.

People and their relatives were overwhelmingly positive about the caring nature and approach of staff. People told us they were supported by staff who were kind and compassionate. They were confident that any concerns would be dealt with promptly. People were supported by appropriate numbers of staff who arrived on time. Staff stayed for the designated amount of time to deliver the care and support people required. People’s concerns were acted on promptly.

The managers had a good insight into the quality of care being delivered and monitored the service personally. They were involved in the delivery of people’s personal care which allowed them to monitor the well-being of people and management of staff. However we have made a recommendation that the service seeks guidance on structured systems to effectively monitor the service being delivered.

Staff felt trained and supported to carry out their role and could seek advice from the managers. They had been trained in subjects such as moving and handling and safeguarding people and were aware of their responsibility in report suspicions or allegations of abuse. The recruitment processes of new staff did not always ensure people were cared for by suitable staff.

The managers and staff were passionate about the care they delivered and were driven to improve the service. They communicated and engaged with others to improve the lives for people.

We found one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.