This inspection took place on 12 and 13 December 2018 and was announced. This was the service’s first inspection since the service registered in June 2015.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to adults.

There was a registered manager in place who had registered in June 2015, who was also the registered provider. 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 told us they felt the service was safe. People were supported by regular, familiar staff and received their calls on time. Although people told us they received appropriate support including with medicines and equipment use, systems and processes were not robust to ensure people would always receive safe support. Gaps in people’s medicines records had not been identified and risk assessments were not always in place in relation to people’s equipment use.

People told us they were happy with the support they received. People were supported by staff who received relevant guidance for their roles. People were supported to access healthcare services when needed to help promote their health. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and were supported in the least restrictive ways possible.

People told us staff were kind and caring. People were supported to express their views and decisions about their care. People told us they felt treated with care and respect. People’s independence and dignity were promoted.

People gave us consistently positive feedback about the service and confirmed they received the support they needed. Systems were in place to help ensure people’s needs and wishes would be gathered and met. There was a process in place to support people and relatives to complain if they needed to. People told us they would feel comfortable complaining about the service, but that they had not needed to.

The registered manager regularly provided care in addition to their management role, along with a director of the service. This helped the registered manager oversee the quality of the service. Whilst we received consistently positive feedback about the quality and safety of the service from people, relatives and professionals, we often found systems and processes were not in place to ensure this would be consistently maintained. Improvements were required to systems and processes to ensure the continued safety and quality of people’s care. We have made a recommendation about this.