Home Instead Senior Care offers personal care and support to people in their own homes. In addition to providing personal care, Home Instead Senior Care also provides a companionship service which supports people with activities and help with domestic duties. This element of the service, although provided by Home Instead Senior Care would not need to be registered with the Commission if this was their sole purpose.

We focussed our inspection on the people in receipt of personal care only. On the day of our inspection there were 54 people using the service, 36 of which received personal care.

There is a registered manager at this location. 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 registered manager obtained people’s views about the service they received. Audits were used to review the effectiveness of the service and covered most of the key aspects of service delivery. We have made a recommendation about this.

Staff were given an induction when they started work at the service and had access to a range of training to provide them with the level of skills and knowledge to deliver care efficiently and were supported to completed higher-level qualifications.

Care plans were person centred and detailed. People were involved with care planning and staff knew people well and were aware of their personal histories. Positive relationships had developed between people and the staff that supported them.

Relevant recruitment checks had been carried out before people started work. Systems and processes were in place to ensure there were sufficient numbers of staff employed to meet people's needs.

The registered manager and staff understood their responsibilities in terms of safeguarding people from abuse and managing risk. People were supported with their medicines by staff that were trained and assessed as competent to give medicines safely.

People's consent was gained before care was provided and the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 were met. People were supported to consume food and drink of their choice and staff worked well with people and health care professionals, to ensure people maximised their health and wellbeing.

Information included guidance for staff so they could follow a structured approach to recognise and manage people’ health conditions and behaviour.

People had positive relationships with their care workers and were confident in the service. There was a strong value base to ensure workers were caring and compassionate. People who used the service felt they were treated with kindness and said their privacy and dignity was respected.