Homecare4u is a domiciliary care agency (DCA) located in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The service provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service provided care and support to 59 people.

At our last inspection the overall rating of the service was ‘good’. At this inspection we found that evidence continued to support the rating of ‘good’ and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

Safe recruitment practices were in place to protect people from unsuitable staff. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to safeguard people from abuse. There were sufficient staff to care for people. Risks to people's safety were assessed and medicines were administered safely.

People said staff protected their privacy and their dignity was respected. People involved in their care and were supported to be independent.

There was good support in place for staff. This included an induction that covered key areas of knowledge, shadowing experienced members of staff, competency checks and spot checks by senior staff.

The registered manager had arranged refresher training on the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) to ensure that the service is consistently working within the principles of the MCA. We will check this when we next inspect the service.

People’s care needs were met and people were supported to access services in the community. The service received good feedback through compliments, cards and surveys and had only received one complaint in the previous twelve months. Independent advocacy was also promoted to safeguard people’s rights where required.

The service was well led. The registered manager was committed and accessible to staff who received good support. The service had good systems in place to monitor performance and an open culture where further learning can continue to take place to drive further improvement.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

This was an announced inspection which took place on 20 and 21 January 2016. Two days before our inspection we contacted the service and told them of our plans to carry out a comprehensive inspection. This was because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be at the office.

Homecare 4U Rochdale is a Domiciliary Care service that provides personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were twenty eight people using the service. This was the first inspection of this service.

The service has a registered manager who was present on the day of our inspection. 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.

People who used the service told us they felt safe. Policies and procedures were in place to safeguard people from abuse and staff had received training in safeguarding adults. Staff were able to tell us how to identify and respond to allegations of abuse. They were also aware of the responsibility to ‘whistle blow’ on colleagues who they thought might be delivering poor care to people.

There was a safe system of recruitment in place which helped protect people who used the service from unsuitable staff. Staff received the induction, training, support and supervision they required to ensure they had the skills and knowledge needed to carry out their roles effectively.

People we spoke with told us the service was reliable and they had never had a missed visit. We found the service was reliable and had a good system in place to alert if staff were late for a visit. Visits were planned well, staff had enough time to provide people with the support they required. Each person who used the service had a small team that supported them so that there was continuity of care and the staff and people got to know each other.

Person centred risk assessments were in place which gave staff guidance on how to minimise and manage identified risks. Care records were detailed and person centred. They contained information based on people’s needs and wishes and were sufficiently detailed to guide staff in how to provide the support people required.

Care records including care plans and risk assessments had been reviewed regularly to ensure they reflected people’s needs and wishes. We saw that people and their relatives had been involved in the reviews.

There was a safe system in place for managing people’s medicines.

Procedures were in place to prevent and control the spread of infection and systems were in place to deal with any emergency that could affect the provision of care.

People’s rights and choices were respected. We found appropriate arrangements were in place to assess whether people were able to consent to their care. The provider was meeting the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). These provide legal safeguards for people who may be unable to make their own decisions.

People we spoke with told us the staff were caring and were very complimentary about the attitude of the staff and the service they received. We found the registered manager and staff all spoke in a caring and compassionate way about people who used the service. They had detailed knowledge of people who used the service and were able to tell us what was important to the people, their likes and dislikes and the support they required.

There was a robust system of quality assurance in place. Weekly and monthly checks and audits were used to assess, monitor and review the service. The registered manager regularly worked alongside staff on visits to assess the quality of the service provided.

The registered manager and staff were enthusiastic and committed to