About the service:

¿ Lynwood Home Care is a home care service. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting nine people in their own homes.

People's experience of using this service:

¿ We received positive feedback about the service and the care people received. The service met the characteristics of Good in all areas.

¿ People received safe care. Medicines were managed safely and there were enough staff to support people and keep them safe.

¿ People were supported by skilled staff with the right knowledge and training.

¿ Staff had respectful, caring relationships with people they supported. They respected people's dignity and privacy and promoted their independence.

¿ People's care and support met their needs and reflected their preferences. The provider upheld people's human rights.

¿ Effective quality assurance processes were in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service.

¿ Staff roles and responsibilities were clear and there was a positive, open and empowering culture in the service.

Rating at last inspection:

The rating at the last inspection on 18 October 2016 was good in all areas.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned, comprehensive inspection of the service.

Follow up

¿ We did not identify any concerns at this inspection. We will therefore re-inspect this service within the published timeframe for services rated Good. We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Lynwood Home Care provides personal care to older adults, some of whom have dementia, in Sunningdale, Berkshire. BEN is a not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to those who work, or have worked, in the automotive industry and their family dependents. The office is located in BEN’s Lynwood Village; a very large purpose-built modern community, where the provider also operates a 96 bed care home with nursing. In additional, there is a café, restaurant, pub, hairdresser and health centre.

The village currently has 66 self-contained apartments and 10 cottages. The provider is currently building another 100 apartments due to open in about spring 2017. The service will increase in size as the village reached full occupancy. People who currently use the service currently live in the existing apartments.

Staff provide care to people within their own homes. Services provided range from assistance in the morning (including helping people get out of bed, to wash, get dressed and have breakfast) shopping, preparation of food, medication prompting and assistance with evening care routines. There is a continuum of care, as people who receive personal care and require residential or nursing care can then opt to move into the care home on site.

At the time of the inspection, there was no registered manager. 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. The service manager had applied to become the registered manager and the application was in progress with our registration team.

The service has not previously been inspected since registration. Therefore, this is the first inspection of the location under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and rating required by the Care Act 2014.

At the time of the inspection, 17 people used the service and there were 5 staff. People received calls in their apartments at set times throughout the day. The service also operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and people, relatives, staff and healthcare professionals could telephone the office anytime to receive support. After hours, calls were diverted to the on-call manager’s mobile telephone.

People were protected against abuse or neglect. People’s and relatives’ opinions of safe care were overall positive. There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs and the service appropriately determined correct staff deployment. Feedback from people and relatives indicated that staff were sometimes late to calls but people told us they were not concerned. When we checked, delays in calls were minimal. People’s medicines were administered, stored and disposed of appropriately. The service needed to ensure that medicines administered were always signed for.

We found staff received induction, training, supervision and performance appraisals. The service utilised Skills for Care’s ‘Care Certificate’ for new carers and there was evidence. Recruitment and selection of new staff members was robust and ensured safety for people who used the service. Consent was gained before care was commenced and people’s right to refuse care was respected by care workers. However there was a risk that consent may not always be gained lawfully by the service from the ‘relevant person’.

Staff were kind and caring. People’s comments showed they were satisfied with the care they received. We determined care workers respected people’s privacy and dignity, and ensured people remained as independent as possible. People had regular opportunities to provide feedback to the service and also have a say in their care package.

The service was responsive to people’s needs. People had the ability to share their compliments, concerns and complaints in an open and tran