This inspection took place on 27 January and 01 February 2017. We gave the provider a weeks’ notice so that they could help us to arrange to visit some people in their homes. This was the provider first inspection. Four Oaks Healthcare is a Domiciliary Care Agency and is registered to provide personal care to adults who live in their own homes. On the day of our inspection they were providing care to 41 people. There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were safe because staff had received training and understood the different types of abuse and knew what actions they should take if they thought that someone was at risk of harm.

Staff were knowledgeable about the actions to take in the event of emergencies and about how the risks to people in respect of their care should be managed.

There were sufficient numbers of safely recruited staff to provide people with regular staff to support them.

People were happy with the support they received and were encouraged to make choices. Staff understood the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act so that people were supported to consent to their care and make choices about how they were supported.

People felt staff had the skills and knowledge to care and support them in their homes. Staff were trained and supported so that they had the knowledge and skills to enable them to care for adults in a way that met their individual needs and preferences. Where appropriate people were supported to access health and social care professionals.

Staff was caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People’s choices and independence was respected and promoted and staff responded to people’s support needs.

Staff told us that they felt supported by the registered manager and felt able to speak with him if they needed to.

There were systems in place to gather the views of people and to monitor the quality of the service. Some people shared with us what the service could do better which we told the registered manager about. The provider was open and transparent and will use the information as a learning curve