This inspection took place on 19 & 25 April 2017 and was announced. We gave the provider 24 hours’ notice because we needed to be sure the right people would be available to talk to us when we visited.

Joint Community Rehab Service (JCR) provides a reablement and rehabilitation service to people in their own homes. It is a partnership between the local authority and East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (ESHT). They provide short term support of up to six weeks to people, usually following discharge from hospital after and illness or accident. The aim of the service is to maximise people’s ability to live independent lives, improve their health, well-being and confidence and on occasion, prevent admission to hospital. People can also be referred urgently to the service by a GP or other healthcare professional, to help prevent them being admitted to hospital. The service was supporting 50 people at the time of this inspection.

There is a registered manager at the 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People experienced good care and support. Staff knew how to safeguard people from abuse and what they should do if they thought someone was at risk. Risks to individuals were well managed and people were able to stay safe without having their freedoms restricted. Managers and staff promoted peoples independence and encouraged positive risk taking. If an incident or accident did occur, they were well reported and investigated. Staff understood the importance of learning from incidents, so they could make sure they did not happen again

There was always enough staff on duty. Staffing levels were regularly assessed and care workers were flexible about the hours they worked. Staff knew people well and understood how to meet people’s needs. Recruitment practices were robust. People’s medicines were well managed. Staff were properly trained and people received their medicines safely and on time.

The registered manager and staff had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (2015) (MCA) and made sure they gained people’s consent in line with legislation.

Staff were extremely caring and always ensured they treated people with dignity and respect. They had an excellent understanding of the care and support needs of people using the service. People told us staff had supported them with goal setting and working with them to achieve their goals. They also told us staff had enabled them to regain their confidence to do things they had previously done. People’s care was personalised to reflect their wishes and what was important to them.

Staff were well supported with training, supervision and appraisal which helped them to ensure they provided effective care for people. Staff also received additional specialist training in relation to the rehabilitation of people. Staff competencies were assessed before they were able to support people unsupervised.

People and those important to them, such as their relatives, were asked for feedback about the quality of the service. Any feedback received was acted on, and any concerns were dealt with quickly before the formal complaints procedure was needed. The registered manager and staff knew what they should do if anyone made a complaint.

Person centred care was fundamental to the service and staff made sure people were at the centre of their practice. Care plans focused on the whole person, and assessments and plans were regularly updated. People’s individual preferences, needs and choices were always taken into account by the caring and compassionate staff. When required, people were well supported to eat and drink enough. Staff understood the importance of good nutrition to help people’