This inspection took place on 30 September 2016 and after our visit to the main office we spoke with people who used the service, their relatives and staff by telephone. This inspection was announced because we needed to be sure the manager was present and that all the required documentation was available for us to review. This was the first inspection of this service.

The service provides care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection they were providing support to people, five of which received the regulated activity of personal care. The people using the service had a range of needs, including physical disabilities and needs related to aging, including those associated with living with dementia.

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 & Social Care Act and associated regulations about how the service is run. The providers also had hands on managerial approach and worked from the main office alongside the registered manager.

Without exception, the feedback we received from people who used the service and their relatives was excellent. They expressed a high level of confidence in the management and individual staff to provide safe and compassionate care that met their needs in the way they liked to be supported.

Staff demonstrated a clear commitment to protecting people from possible harm, and were knowledgeable about how they should do this. Systems were in place to identify and minimise any risks to people.

Staff were well trained and had a very good understanding of people’s care needs. The registered manager and the providers offered high level support to staff, ensuring they were familiar with people’s needs, and had the skills and knowledge to meet them before they started to provide support. Each person was supported by a consistent team of staff to ensure that they received care from staff who knew them and that they felt safe with.

The provider demonstrated a compassionate and person centred approach to care and people told us they enjoyed positive relationships with staff that were friendly and respectful. They confirmed staff took care to protect their dignity and privacy.

The service provided to people was based on their individual needs and was flexible to accommodate any changes that were required. People felt able to express their views and the provider sought feedback from people to support continuous improvements to the service.

There were effective processes in place to monitor the quality of the care provided to people

who used the service. The provider demonstrated strong values based on high quality person centred care, and this was reflected by the staff who were proud to work for the service and were clearly motivated to do their jobs well.