This comprehensive inspection took place on 7 November 2017 and was announced. We gave the registered manager three working days’ notice as the location provided a service to people in their own homes and we needed to confirm the registered manager would be available when we inspected.

The last inspection took place in January 2017 and the service was rated ‘requires improvement’ in Safe, Effective, Well Led and overall. Caring and Responsive were rated ‘good’. We found breaches of Regulations relating to safe care and treatment, fit and proper persons employed, consent and good governance. Following the last inspection, we asked the provider to complete an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve the key questions of Safe, Effective and Well Led to at least ‘good’. During this inspection, we found that improvements had been made.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. It provides a service to older people, younger disabled adults and children. At the time of the inspection, 13 people were using the service.

The service had 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 procedures in place to protect people from abuse. Care workers we spoke with knew how to respond to safeguarding concerns. People had risk assessments and management plans in place to minimise risks and incidents and accidents were recorded appropriately.

Care workers had the relevant training and supervision, including observational checks, to develop the necessary skills to support people using the service. Safe recruitment procedures were followed to ensure care workers were suitable to work with people using the service.

Medicines were administered and managed safely.

Care workers had relevant training in infection control and used protective equipment as required.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and care workers were responsive to individual needs and preferences. People using the service had developed positive relationships with staff.

People’s dietary requirements were met and care workers were aware of people’s health needs.

People and their families, were involved in their care plans and making day to day decisions.

Relatives and care workers said the registered manager was accessible and responded to concerns appropriately and in a timely manner.

The service had a number of systems in place to monitor, manage and improve service delivery so a quality service was provided to people. This included a complaints system, service audits and satisfaction surveys.

The inspection took place on 25 January 2017 and was announced. We gave the registered manager two working days’ notice of the inspection as the location provided a service to people in their own homes and we needed to confirm the registered manager would be available when we inspected.

The service registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 05 October 2015 and this was their first inspection.

Friendly Homecare is a domiciliary care agency that provides care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were 12 people using the service. Support provided included support with social activities, personal care and meal preparation. Support hours varied from 24 hours a day to one visit per week.

The service had 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.

At the inspection, we found people had risk assessments but these did not cover all individual risks and the risk management plans did not always provide enough information on how to mitigate the risk or guidance on how to manage it.

People were not always protected against the risks associated with the inappropriate management of medicines.

The service did not always follow safe recruitment procedures and therefore did not always ensure that they were employing suitable care workers to support people using the service.

The service had not always assessed people's capacity to consent to care and treatment and we saw care plans where family members had signed on behalf of the person using the service although there was no indication in the file that the person was unable to sign for themselves.

There were some systems in place to monitor the quality of the service delivered to ensure peoples' needs were being met and to identify where improvements to care could be made. However, the service did not always have robust management systems and there was a lack of analysis of incident and accident forms, and auditing of medicines and financial records.

People using the service told us they felt safe. The service had appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures in place and care workers were aware of how to respond to any safeguarding concerns.

Care workers had the support and training they needed including induction training, supervision, appraisals and spot checks. There were an adequate number of care workers to meet the needs of the people who used the service.

People were involved in their day to day care decisions.

People's health and nutritional needs were recorded.

Care workers were kind and caring. People and care workers had developed good relationships.

Relatives we spoke with said the manager was accessible and responsive and care workers told us they felt supported by their manager. There was a complaints system and people felt able to raise concerns.

We found breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.