This inspection took place on 23 March 2017 and was an announced inspection. This was our first inspection of this location.

Dolphin Healthcare is a Domiciliary Care Service which is registered to provide personal care services to people in their homes, including children. At the time of our inspection they were providing care and support to 16 children; only five of these children were receiving the regulated activity, personal care. The provider also offers other services to people such as support with shopping or household tasks that we do not regulate.

The provider is required to have a register manager in post. 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. A registered manager was in post at the time of our inspection.

People were supported by enough members of staff who had the knowledge and skills they required to care for people safely and effectively. This included the safe management of medicines so that people received support to take their medicines as prescribed, if required.

People were protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm because staff received training and understood the different types of abuse and knew what actions were needed to keep people safe. The provider had also ensured effective systems were in place to report and investigate any concerns raised, which included working collaboratively with external agencies.

People were supported by staff that were kind, caring and respectful and who took the time to get to know people and their families. People were encouraged to be as independent as possible, where possible and were supported to have food that they enjoyed.

People knew how to complain if they were unhappy and they were confident that their concerns would be responded to efficiently and effectively.

The provider had management systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service provided to people. Staff reported to feel supported and valued within their work and felt that the provider maintained open, honest and transparent communication systems within the service.