LCMB Therahealth Homecare provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the Bourne area of South Lincolnshire. The service was first registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2015 and started operating in September 2015.

We inspected the service on 29 September 2016. The inspection was announced. At the time of our inspection 13 people were receiving a personal care service.

The service did not have a registered manager. A new manager had been appointed in May 2016. She had applied to CQC to become the registered manager and, at the time of our inspection, was awaiting the outcome of her application. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers (‘the provider’), 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.

CQC is required by law to monitor how a provider applies the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and to report on what we find. Staff demonstrated their understanding of how to support people who lacked the capacity to make some decisions for themselves. Staff also knew how to recognise and report any concerns to keep people safe from harm.

People told us that they were highly satisfied with every aspect of the service they received. In particular, the provider’s careful approach to managing staffing resources which meant they were supported by the same staff on a consistent basis. Staff had established warm, friendly relationships with people and went out of their way to help them in any way they could. Staff worked together in a supportive way. They enjoyed working for the provider and felt listened to by the manager and other senior personnel.

People were involved in agreeing the type and amount of care they received and their needs and wishes were understood and followed by staff. Staff treated people with dignity and respect and encouraged them to maintain their independence. Staff had the knowledge and skills required to meet people’s individual needs effectively and supported them to prepare food and drink of their choice.

We identified a number of areas in which improvement was needed to ensure people received safe, effective care. These related to record-keeping and other administrative processes rather than the delivery of hands-on care. Improvement was required in the recording of medicines administration, the completion of people’s individual risk assessments and in some aspects of staff recruitment procedures.

The manager of the service displayed an open and responsive management style and had already identified the areas for improvement we picked up in our inspection. She had the support of the provider to tackle these in a systematic way and make the changes that were required.