Hinds Care and Support Services service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to children and young adults living with their families in the community who live with learning and physical disabilities. There was currently one child and two young adults using the service.

This is the first inspection of the service since initial registration in April 2017. As a result of this inspection the service was rated as Good.

At the time of this inspection there was a registered manager 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.

The registered manager and care staff had a good understanding of the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in terms of people’s best interest’s and how this could impact on the provision of care and support. Care plans demonstrated that the capacity of the child and young adults to make decisions was assessed and families were fully consulted as well as the child and young adults in so far as they were able to be meaningfully involved. However, the service had not confirmed whether the two young adults that lacked capacity had the necessary authorisations in place for either a member of their family or placing authority had legal power of attorney to provide consent. When we raised this the registered manager took action to respond and resolve this issue.

The child and young adults using the service had a care plan which contained information about the person, their families who they lived with and their care support needs. As part of the care planning process, the registered manager carried out risk assessments which covered the home environment, personal care needs, moving and handling, activities people were supported to participate in and health and safety.

Care staff were trained about how to identify types of abuse and there was clear guidance about the actions they should take if they had any concerns. The policies of the service covered safeguarding children and also adults.

It was the usual policy of the service not to provide assistance to children or young adults to take medicines as the responsibility for doing this remained with people’s own families. This was clearly outlined in the care plan agreements but in an exceptional case a care worker did provide assistance to a child if they were present when this person needed to take medicine.

The service had safe recruitment processes in place. These included obtaining references and the completion of a criminal record check prior to the care staff commencing their employment, except in one case where an updated check was only received after the person started work. Care staff told us that they felt supported in their role. None of the care staff had been recruited before July 2017. Annual appraisals had not yet been due as no member of care staff had been working at the service for a year or more, although the registered manager told us this would occur when they were due.

Care staff, when they first started working at the service, received an in-house induction and training, which included first aid, safeguarding, moving and handling and training specific to the needs of the child or young adult they were supporting.

A spot check system was in place in order to monitor the care and support provided to people along with regular reviews of care and support needs. No missed or late visits had occurred.

The service had a complaints policy which was given to people using the service and relatives. The registered manager reported that they had not received any complaints since the service began operating.

Although the service was relatively new, feedback from families had been obtained. These showed a high de