This inspection took place on 28 and 29 June 2016 and was announced.

Lady Forester Home Care provides personal care for people in their own homes. At this inspection they were providing care and support for 11 people.

A registered manager was in post and present during 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 were safe as staff had been trained and understood how to support people in a way that protected them from danger, harm and abuse. Staff had access to care plans and risk assessments and were aware of how to protect people from harm.

The provider completed appropriate checks on staff before they started work to ensure they were safe to work with people. People received help with their medicines from staff who were trained to safely administer these and who made sure they had their medicine when they needed it. Staff followed safe practice when assisting people with their medicines.

People received care from staff that had the skills and knowledge to meet their needs. People’s likes and dislikes were known by staff who supported them in a way which was personal to them. People had positive relationships with the staff members who supported them.

Staff attended training that was relevant to the people they supported. Staff received support and guidance from a management team who they found approachable.

People were involved in decisions about their care and had information they needed in a way they understood. When people could not make decisions for themselves staff understood the steps they needed to follow to ensure people’s rights were upheld.

People had their privacy and dignity respected and information personal to them was treated with confidence. People had access to healthcare when needed and staff responded to any changes in need promptly and consistently. People were supported to maintain a diet which promoted well-being.

People and staff felt able to express their views and felt their opinions mattered. The provider and registered manager undertook regular quality checks in order to drive improvements. The provider engaged people and their families and encouraged feedback. People felt confident they were listened to and their views were valued.

During this inspection we spoke in private with people who used the service and staff. We also spoke with the registered manager and deputy manager.

People we spoke with told us that they all had been provided with sufficient information about the services to make a decision as to whether they wanted to use them or not. They also told us that they had been assessed before a service was provided and that they had a care plan that set out the care and support they received.

People who used the service understood the care and treatment choices available to them, and were involved in decisions about their care. Comments included, “All the staff are very good. I have no complaints”. “They are wonderful”. “They sometimes seem short of staff at a weekend”. “The staff are polite and helpful; they always ask if there’s anything else they can do”.

There were comprehensive care planning arrangements in place in the service, which included up to date care plans and risk assessments.

Suitable recruitment checks were completed to ensure people were cared for and supported by qualified, skilled and experienced staff.

There was a complaints policy and procedure in place. People we spoke with told us they knew who to raise any concerns with and they felt confident their concerns would be addressed.

People who use the service said that they were well looked after. They told us that the staff always asked them how they would like things to be done, always respected their privacy and treated them with respect. They said staff talked to them about how they liked their support to be provided.

People told us that they felt able to raise any issues with the manager or staff should they have any concerns. Staff talked of their awareness of how to keep people safe from harm. Staff told us about the training that the service had arranged for them so that they would recognise abuse and how to report it.

People told us that staff were punctual and reliable. People’s relatives told us that staff were always friendly and professional when they visited. One person said, "*** is really happy with them” and another said “The staff are very helpful”.

People we spoke with said their comments were listened to. A relative said that they would not hesitate to talk to staff if something was wrong.

We carried out this review to check on the care and welfare of people using this service and to monitor the continual improvements made by the agency since our last visit.

We had telephone discussions with three people who received a service and one relative to ask their views on the quality of the service that they received from the agency. We also spoke with four staff and the registered manager and the care manager on the day of our visit to the office. We also reviewed care and staff files and looked at systems in place for monitoring contact with the people who received a service.

Everyone we spoke with told us that they were satisfied with the care and support that they received. People told us that they felt involved and consulted in relation to how they received their support. People said that staff knew how to meet their needs and listened to them when they asked for things to be done differently.

People told us that staff were flexible, caring and responsive. Everyone told us that they thought staff were well trained.

We identified an issue in relation to a small number of calls being missed and although people were very understanding of this, some people told us that it inconvenienced them and sometimes affected their plans. We are aware that since the agency have improved their communication systems these incidents have not been repeated.

We were told that the agency asked people if they were happy with the service received and everyone said that they would contact the office if they had any worries or concerns. People said that the managers were easy to talk to and listened to them.

We found that consistency in care provided by the agency was a strength of the service provided. People expressed their respect and satisfaction for the support their care workers provided. Staff were confident that people’s needs were understood and managed appropriately as they had received the right training opportunities and felt supported enough to do a good job.

People were protected because staff were confident to recognise and report abuse. People felt that staff were able to meet their care and support needs well.

The agency had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service provided and the registered manager demonstrated that the agency had responded positively when issues had been identified.