This inspection took place on 7 August 2017 and was announced. We gave the registered manager 48 hours' notice as we needed to make sure someone would be in the office. This was the first inspection carried out at the service since the provider added this location to their registration on 11 August 2016.

Forestcare has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. On their website they say they are Bracknell Forest’s telecare service, "Designed to offer personalised support to suit a range of needs, Forestcare offers free assessments and advice to the borough’s vulnerable residents and their families. Through this service the team design a bespoke monitoring and response package to enable the borough’s older and vulnerable residents to maintain their independence while having peace of mind that help is at hand."

Forestcare provides a number of different services to support and enable people to continue to live in their own homes. The majority of the services are linked, but different aspects of the service provision, although linked together, are not regulated.

Some of the services they offer that do not require registration include:

- The lifeline service. This is a 24 hour, 365 days a year telecare service. Forestcare install and monitor lifeline alarms in people's homes. People then wear a pendant which they can press to call for assistance if they need it.

- Care calls. A care call is where staff at the service's control centre telephone people at pre-arranged times each day to check they are okay. Care calls can also be used to prompt people to take their medicines.

- Medicine monitoring. People can have their medicine in a unit which is programmed to dispense medicine at chosen intervals. If the person does not take their medicine at the appropriate time the unit will sound an alert and will raise an automatic call through to the Forestcare control centre.

- Mobile global positioning system (GPS) lifeline monitoring. The device provided for this service is the size of a key fob and is fitted with a roaming phone card which utilises the mobile phone network to connect to the control centre. It has a button which can be used to raise an alert to Forestcare so they can find out what the problem is and arrange help. The GPS element of the device also enables the service to locate the person if they get lost or have an accident, wherever they are.

In November 2016 Forestcare launched its new 'responder service', which provides emergency care to people in their own home at any time of the day or night. The emergency care and support offered may involve the provision of personal care and it is this aspect of the service which is registered and regulated by the Care Quality Commission. The responder service is offered to people as an addition to the lifeline service and includes staff visiting people in emergencies and providing whatever support is indicated, which may include personal care. In their documentation they state that, "Each emergency care situation is different, but some common scenarios we regularly give immediate support to include: rapid response for an unplanned discharge from hospital; emergency support when another agency has let a family down; help when unforeseen circumstances occur and a family has other commitments; assistance with personal care and falls."

Overall the service handles approximately 10,000 calls a week and they monitor more than 3,000 lifeline alarms across Bracknell Forest and surrounding areas. At the time of our inspection 17 people were signed up to the responder service. Plans were underway for a further 80 people to sign up in August and September 2017.

The service had a registered manager as required. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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 regulatio