About the service: Guild Care is registered to provide personal care and support to people living in their own homes or in supported living accommodation. At the time of our inspection Guild Care was providing support to 60 people.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ People told us that care staff were kind and caring in their interactions with them, but sometimes they had lots of different care staff which left some people feeling unsettled.

¿ Auditing processes needed to be more robust and detailed to enable the service to identify where improvement was needed.

¿ Further improvements were needed to ensure risk assessments and care plans were accurate and sufficiently detailed. We have made a recommendation about this.

¿ The principles of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) were adhered to. However, documentation should be made clearer as to decisions that people are still able to make for themselves.

¿ People were supported to eat and drink enough to maintain a balanced diet. Further information was however required within care plans with reference to people’s dietary needs and food preferences.

¿ There were sufficient staff to cover all visits. Recruitment procedures were in place to ensure staff were suitable for their roles.

¿ People had access to healthcare professionals when required.

¿ Staff knew how to care for people and received training in their roles, and support from the registered manager.

¿ The registered manager and provider was open and transparent and welcomed feedback from us. They demonstrated a commitment to putting systems in place which would promptly address the issues we found.

¿ There was a warm and friendly culture at the service. Staff felt supported and valued. The provider was committed to ensuring that a person-centred approach was sustained.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated Good (Report published September 2016).

Why we inspected: We inspected this service in line with our inspection schedule for services currently rated as Good.

Enforcement: Action we told the provider to take is outlined at the back of the report.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor this service according to our inspection schedule in line with the rating of ‘Requires Improvement.’

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Guild Care is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. There were 53 people receiving personal care from the service when we visited.

This announced inspection took place on 1 and 2 September 2016. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the registered manager is sometimes out of the office.

A registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (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 Regulations about how the service is run.

Staff received training to protect people from harm and they were knowledgeable about reporting any suspected harm. There were a sufficient number of staff employed and recruitment procedures ensured that only suitable staff were employed. Risk assessments were in place and actions were taken to reduce risks which had been identified. Arrangements were in place to ensure that people were supported and protected with the safe management of medicines.

The provider had procedures in place in relation to the application of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). Staff we spoke with confirmed they had received training regarding MCA. The registered manager and the staff were knowledgeable about these. They were aware of the circumstances they needed to be aware of if people’s mental capacity to make certain decisions about their care changed.

People were supported to access a range of healthcare professionals and they were provided with opportunities to increase their levels of independence. Health risk assessments were in place to ensure that people were supported to maintain their health. People received adequate amounts of food and drink to meet their individual preferences and nutritional needs.

People confirmed that their privacy and dignity was respected and their care and support was provided in a caring and a patient way.

Appropriate recruitment checks had been completed to ensure that staff were suitable to provide care and support for people using the service.

A complaints procedure was in place and complaints had been responded to, to the satisfaction of the complainant. People could raise concerns with the staff at any time.

The provider had quality assurance processes and procedures in place to improve, if needed, the quality and safety of people’s support and care. People and their relatives were able to make suggestions in relation to the support and care provided and staff acted on what they were told.

There were links with the external community. A staff training and development programme was in place and procedures were in place to review the standard of staff members’ work performance