This inspection took place on 13 November 2018 and was an announced inspection. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice to ensure someone would be available at the registered office. This was the providers first inspection following their registration March 2017.

My Pillar is a domiciliary care service which is registered to provide personal care services to people living in their own homes, including adults and older adults living with physical, learning and or mental health conditions such as dementia. At the time of our inspection they were providing personal care and support to 10 people.

The service had a registered manager who was 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 supported by enough members of staff who had knowledge and skills they required to care for people safely and effectively.

We found people were protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm because staff received training and understood the different types of abuse and knew what actions were needed to keep people safe.

People were encouraged to be as independent as possible, where possible and were supported to have food that they enjoyed. People told us staff always sought their consent before delivering care. People told us staff were kind, caring and respectful and they took the time to get to know people and their families.

We found people received an assessment of their needs before staff commenced their visits. However, the information contained in the care plans were not detailed and some section were inappropriate. Care plans also lacked information regarding people needs however staff were very knowledgeable about the people they cared for.

The service had a robust recruitment process to help ensure people employed were suitable to work with vulnerable people.

People knew how to complain if they were unhappy and they were confident that their concerns would be responded to efficiently and effectively.

The provider had some management systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service provided to people. However, information gathered was not always used effectively to drive improvements within the service.

Staff reported to feel supported and valued within their work and felt that the provider maintained open, honest and transparent communication systems within the service.

There was a complaints policy in place, however at the time of our inspection, no complaints had been raised. This was confirmed by the people we spoke to with.

A range of policies and procedures were in place to ensure appropriate guidance could be sought when needed.