This was the provider's first inspection since their registration in November 2014. They had not been inspected before this time as they were not offering support to people. ICare is registered as a domiciliary Care Agency and provides personal care to people in their own homes. This inspection took place on 12 July 2017 and was announced. The provider had been given 48 hours’ notice of the visit to the office so that we could be sure someone would be available to meet with us. This was the first inspection of this service.

On the day of our inspection they were providing care to one person. There was a registered manager at this service. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We did not find enough evidence about the key questions we ask about services, or the experiences of people using the service, to provide a rating to each of the five questions. We were therefore not able to rate the service against the characteristics of inadequate, requires improvement, good and outstanding to provide an overall rating for the service.at this inspection.

We found people received a service that was based on their personal needs and wishes. Changes in people's needs were identified and responded to. Risks people might experience with their care or environment were being managed safely. People did not receive support with their medicines.

People's needs had been assessed before they started to receive support from the service and relatives had been involved in developing and updating their care plans. We found the information contained in the care records was individualised and clearly identified people's needs and preferences.

No staff were currently employed by the service. We were unable to judge the effectiveness of the service in response to a wider range of possible risks that can occur. Relatives told us they knew how to make a complaint and felt confident that it would be dealt with well.

As the service was so small the registered manager had not yet developed a quality monitoring process to identify if the service was meeting people’s needs or how it could be improved. Audits had not begun to take place, and information was not yet reviewed for trends and to identify learning opportunities.

We were unable to gather sufficient evidence for the key lines of enquiry to provide a rating for each key question and an overall rating for the service at this inspection. We will be in contact with the provider as the service develops and decide on a suitable time to carry out the next inspection and provide a rating for the service.