The inspection took place on 16 January 2018. We told the provider two working days before our visit that we would be coming because the location provides a domiciliary care service for people in their own homes and staff might be out visiting people.

This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered in June 2017. The service had previously operated from another postal address. This service had been inspected in March 2016 and was rated Good.

London Care (Brentford) is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection 181 people used the service. They lived in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Brent. The majority of people were older people, and some lived with the experience of dementia. A small amount of younger adults with physical disabilities, people with learning disabilities and people with mental health needs used the service. London Care (Brentford) is a branch of London Care Limited, a provider of 22 homecare services in London and South East England. The provider is part of the City and County Healthcare Group who own and manage a number of care providers.

The registered manager left the organisation in 2017. A new manager had been recruited and they had started the process of applying to be registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People using the service and their representatives were generally happy. They liked the regular care workers who supported them and they felt their needs were being met. People told us the care workers were kind, considerate and friendly. Some people felt that visits did not always take place at the time they expected. Whilst some people said they did not mind a degree of flexibility, others felt that the care visits were sometimes so late that it disrupted their day and how they would like to be cared for. Most people explained that late visits were not a regular occurrence. People also told us they were not always informed when their care worker was running late so they did not know what was happening. We discussed this with the manager at the service and looked at the systems the provider had for monitoring when visits were planned and took place. The system had improved in recent months and the provider had an effective process for identifying and responding when visits did not take place as planned.

People told us they were involved in planning their own care. They said that their choices were respected and that the care was delivered in a way which supported them to stay as independent as they wanted. We saw that assessments of needs and care plans were clear and well designed. People had consented to their plans where they were able. For people who did not have capacity to consent, the provider had made sure that care was planned in their best interests with their representatives. The care plans included information about individual preferences and had been updated when people's needs changed.

The care workers who we spoke with gave us mixed feedback on their experiences working for the agency. Some care workers told us they did not always feel supported or have the training they needed. They also told us they were not allocated enough travel time between care visits. We looked at records of staff training, supervision and support. There was evidence that the staff had regular and thorough training and that they had opportunities to meet with their manager to discuss their work. The provider also carried out regular spot checks to observe how the care workers were supporting people and assessed their competencies with key tasks.

The provider had processes designe