Lincolnshire Domiciliary Care Branch is registered to provide personal care and support for people who live in their own homes. Some of the people who received support shared their accommodation with others who also received assistance from the service. In this report we refer to this group of people as using, the ‘supported living service’. Other people lived in a variety of settings that usually did not involve sharing their accommodation. In this report we refer to these people as using, the ‘domiciliary care service’. Also, when we speak about both the supported living service and the domiciliary care service we refer to them as being, the ‘services’.

Lincolnshire Domiciliary Care Branch is registered to care for children between the ages of 13 and 18 years, younger adults and older people. In relation to these people, it can provide personal care for people who need support due to a learning disability, autism, mental health problems or a physical disability.

The service covered the whole of Lincolnshire but in practice most of the provision was in Bourne and the Deepings, Grantham and Lincoln. In total, the service operated 26 supported living addresses in which 82 people were accommodated. In addition, there was a total of 12 people who used the domiciliary care service. The service’s main office was in Bourne but it also had a satellite office in Grantham.

At our last inspection we mainly focused on the provision in Bourne. At this inspection we principally focused upon the provision in Grantham. We did this in order to extend our evaluation of the service. In the Grantham area there were 17 people accommodated in three supported living addresses. In addition, there were six people using the domiciliary care service.

Lincolnshire Domiciliary Care Branch is operated by a company that is the registered provider. There was a registered manager in post. 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. In this report when we speak about both the company and the registered manager, we refer to them as being, ‘the registered persons’.

In relation to both of the services, staff knew how to respond to any concerns that might arise so that people were kept safe from abuse. People had been supported to avoid the risk of accidents and they had been helped to manage their medicines safely. There were enough staff to provide people with the support they needed and background checks had been completed before new staff had been appointed.

Staff had received training and guidance and they knew how to support people in the right way. People had been assisted to plan and prepare their own meals and they had been supported to receive all of the healthcare assistance they needed.

Staff had ensured that people’s rights were respected by helping them to make decisions for themselves. The Care Quality Commission is required by law to monitor how registered persons apply the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and to report on what we find. These safeguards protect people when they are not able to make decisions for themselves and it is necessary to deprive them of their liberty in order to keep them safe. In relation to this, the registered persons had worked with the local authority to ensure that people only received lawful care that respected their rights.

People were treated with kindness, compassion and respect. Staff recognised people’s right to privacy and promoted their dignity. Confidential information was kept private.

People had been consulted about the support they wanted to receive and they had been given all of the assistance and encouragement they needed to be as independent as possible. People h

This inspection mainly looked at the provider’s service to tenants who were sharing accommodation. Some of the people had special communication needs and expressed themselves using a combination of words, sounds and gestures. We spoke with seven people who used the service and with six relatives. Everyone gave us positive feedback. A person said, “Staff are good and help me with things I like.” Another person smiled and moved closer to a support worker when asked about their home. A relative said, “If it wasn’t for the staff my daughter wouldn’t manage there. I’m very pleased she lives there because it’s relaxed and comfortable and she has the normal life we want for her. It’s like the staff are her friends helping her to manage without being intrusive in any way.”

People had been given information about the support they could receive and they had been assisted to make decisions about things that were important to them.

People said that they had received all of the support they needed. Records confirmed that assistance had been provided in a safe, reliable and responsive way.

People had been supported to safely manage their medication.

The provider employed enough staff to give it the capacity it needed to consistently meet people’s needs for support.

We saw that a range of quality checks had been completed to help ensure that people reliably received the help at home they needed.

Lincolnshire Domiciliary Care Branch supported people to live in their own homes.

We saw people were confident and relaxed with the care staff. A relative we spoke with told us, “We are very very happy with the level of care,” they added, “[Name] is happy, that’s the important thing.”

People were involved in their care and given the opportunity to comment on the service they received. This included completing quality assurance questionnaires and feeding back on staff for the appraisal process.