This inspection took place on the 9 and 11 November 2016 and was announced.

Face2Face is a supported living and domiciliary care service that supports people with learning difficulties and mental health needs. At the time of our inspection there were 29 people being supported by the service.

Face2Face had a registered 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 legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were at risk of receiving care from unsuitable staff because robust recruitment procedures were not always being applied. We have made a recommendation about staff recruitment. Medicines were generally managed safely.

We received positive feedback from health and social care professionals, such as “they have a good track record of working with our more able individuals who may have additional mental health needs”.

Sufficient staffing levels were maintained and staff were supported through training and supervision to maintain their skills and knowledge to care for people living with dementia. Risks to people’s safety were identified, assessed and appropriate action taken. People had positive relationships with the staff team.

People were treated with kindness, their privacy and dignity was respected and they were supported to develop their independence and keep in contact with relatives. People were involved in the planning and review of their care and were supported to engage in suitable activities of their choice. People had positive relationships with the staff.

Staff received support to develop knowledge and skills for their role. The management team was accessible to people using the service and staff. Staff spoke positively about their work with people. Systems were in place to check the quality of the service provided.

We found that people were respected and involved in their service. People told us "the staff support me to do what I want to do when I want to do it".

Through looking at care plans of six of the 18 people supported we saw that people's needs were assessed and plans drawn up and implemented to meet those needs. One person told us "I keep my care plan at home and staff tell me what they write in it".

We found the provider had in place systems to protect people from abuse and had acted appropriately and quickly in responding to concerns regarding abuse. Staff members were able to tell us how they would respond in the event of abuse being suspected, witnessed or alleged.

People told us they liked the staff supporting them. One staff member we spoke to told us that teamwork and consistency within the staff team was good. We found the provider employed enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people's needs.

We found the provider had in place systems to assess and monitor the quality of service that people receive. The provider told us they thought it was essential to keep trying to improve how people were cared for and supported.

The registered manager told us that they purposely keep things small and supporting 15 people gives them total individual support. We saw evidence that the provider had listen to people who use the service and had implemented actions as a result. The manager also confirmed they had received no complaints for the previous year.

One parent had said “all I can say is praise, praise, praise. Praise for the staff who are understanding of our son’s needs and delivering a good service”. Another parent said “it is wonderful to see our daughter so at ease with her carers and able to discuss anything. It was good to see that she could choose her own keyworker”.

We reviewed two care files for people using the service. The care files are kept by the people themselves and were very comprehensive. They were person centred and had appropriate care plans and risk assessments. Each person also had their own action plan of activities they wanted to do. For example one person wanted to go do Disneyland, have new wardrobes and start counselling. The staff were able to support this person to achieve their goals.

We spoke to two people who use the service and they told us “the staff are really nice and caring, they all help me and involve me in the care I need”.