Ealing Mencap Enterprise Lodge provides personal care and support to people with a learning disability who live in their own homes or with their families. At the time of this inspection, the service was supporting three people.

The last inspection of the service was in February 2015 when the service was rated Good.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good. The service met all relevant fundamental standards.

The provider had systems to keep people safe; staff understood these and reported any concerns.

The provider carried out pre-employment checks to ensure staff were suitable to work with people using the service and there were enough staff to care for and support people using the service.

The provider had systems to supervise staff and planned to introduce annual appraisals of staff performance. Staff had the training they needed to care for and support people using the service.

The provider asked people using the service for consent before they received care and support.

Where people could not make decisions about their care and support, the provider worked with other people to agree decisions in their best interests.

People using the service told us they enjoyed the support they received from staff and the activities they took part in. Staff commented in a caring and professional way on the ways they supported people.

The service had an experienced manager who was registered with the Care Quality Commission.

The provider had clear aims and objectives for the service and systems to monitor and improve the delivery of care and support.

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

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

This inspection took place on 17 February 2015. The inspection was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice as the service provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in.

Ealing Mencap Enterprise Lodge provides a personal assistant service to people with a learning disability and / or physical disability who live in their own homes. The provider said the service, “aims to provide the highest quality personalised care and support to people in their own homes.” At the time of this inspection, there were two people using the service.

The service has a registered manager. 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.

The provider had not completed checks on some support workers to make sure they were suitable to work with people using the service. This was a breach of the Health and Social care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

People’s relatives told us they were involved in developing their family member’s care and support plan, identifying what support they required from the service and how this was to be carried out.

Staff assessed the care and support needs of people using the service, understood each person’s needs and knew how people preferred to be cared for and supported.

Staff had the training they needed and the provider and registered manager supported staff to deliver appropriate care and support safely.

The provider had systems to monitor the quality of the service and obtain feedback from people using the service, their representatives and others.