About the service: Countywide Home Care Limited provides personal care to adults living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, 25 people were using the service who needed assistance with their personal care.

People’s experience of using this service: People told us they received a good service and felt safe. Accidents and incidents were recorded and investigated, and risk assessments were in place. The registered manager understood their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and staff had been appropriately trained. Arrangements were in place for the safe administration of medicines.

There were enough staff on duty to meet the needs of people. The provider had an effective recruitment and selection procedure in place, and carried out relevant vetting checks when they employed staff. Staff were suitably trained and received regular supervisions and appraisals.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives, and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People’s needs were assessed before they started using the service. Staff treated people with dignity and respect and helped to maintain people’s independence by encouraging them to care for themselves where possible.

The provider had a complaints procedure in place, and people were aware of how to make a complaint. An effective quality assurance process was in place. People and staff were regularly consulted about the quality of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated Good (15 February 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection. It was scheduled based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

We undertook an announced inspection on 14 January 2016. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of our intention to undertake an inspection. This was because the organisation provides a domiciliary care service to people in their homes and or the family home; we needed to be sure that someone would be available at the office.

The provider registered this service with us to provide personal care and support for people with a range of varying needs including dementia, who live in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 43 people received support with personal care.

There was a registered manager for this service. A registered provider is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered providers and registered managers 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 relatives said they were well supported by the staff and the management team. They told us staff were caring and treated them with dignity and respect. When identified as part of their care planning, people were supported to eat and drink well. Relatives told us they were always involved as part of the team to support their family member. People and their relatives told us staff would access health professionals as soon as they were needed.

Staff we spoke with recognised the different types of abuse. There were systems in place to guide staff in reporting any concerns. Staff were knowledgeable about how to manage people’s individual risks, and were able to respond to peoples’ needs. People were supported to receive their medicines by staff that were trained and knowledgeable about the risks associated with them. Staff really knew people well, and took people’s preferences into account and respected them. The management team were adaptable to changes in peoples’ needs and communicated changes to staff effectively.

Staff had the knowledge and training to support people. Staff were knowledgeable about ensuring people gave their consent to the support they received. They worked within the confines of the law which meant they did not treat people unlawfully. The management team reviewed people whose capacity to make decisions fluctuated. There were no applications to the court of protection to deprive people of their liberty.

People and their relatives knew how to raise complaints and the management team had arrangements in place to ensure people were listened to and action taken if required. Staff were encouraged to be involved in regular meetings to share their views and concerns about the quality of the service.

The management team monitored the quality of the service. The registered provider had systems in place to identify improvements and action them in a timely way.

When we visited County Wide Homecare we spoke with the provider, the registered manager and the training manager. We spoke with four members of care staff on the telephone following our visit. We spoke with seven people who used the service and four relatives on the telephone following our visit. We looked at five people's care records and four care staff records.

We found that the provider had systems in place to gain the consent to care and treatment of people who used the service.

We found that staff had an understanding of the needs of people who used the service. We found that care and treatment was planned and delivered in a safe way, which met people's individual care needs. People we spoke with were positive about the care they received. One person told us, "I don't know what I would do without them."

We found that the provider worked well with other services to ensure the health and wellbeing of the people who used the service.

We found that there was an effective recruitment process in place to ensure that staff had the skills to meet people's needs.

We found that systems were in place to deal with complaints. The provider monitored the quality of the service and had made improvements where needed. One person told us, "They give very good care, I have never had any problems."

We spoke with three people who used the service about the quality of care they received. People told us they were happy with the support they received and that it made a difference to their everyday living.

Comments people made were positive. One person said, “they are lovely, haven’t come across a bad one yet.” Another said, “I’m very happy and my family are too, I’m very lucky to have lovely carers.”