About the service: New Hope Care Brook Road is a domiciliary care and supported living service registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes or supported living accommodation. The service was providing personal to 19 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

•People told us they felt safe and were happy with how staff supported them. Staff knew how to protect people from the risk of harm or abuse. Staff supported people in a way that reduced risks to people’s safety. There were enough staff to support people within their home. Where people needed support with their medicines safe arrangements were in place. Staff used protective clothing to protect people from infections.

• People were supported by staff who understood their needs and had support and training to meet their needs effectively. People’s consent to care was sought and they were supported to access healthcare professionals when needed. People had appropriate support to eat and drink and risks related to people’s dietary needs were known.

• People described staff as kind and caring, and there was an emphasis on protecting people’s dignity and promoting their independence.

• People had been actively involved in deciding their care and personal routines and staff supported them to undertake educational and social activities of interest. People were confident any complaints or issues they raised would be addressed.

• The provider carried out regular audits and checks on the service to ensure people received a quality service. People’s views were sought and reflected they were happy with the service.

Rating at last inspection: Good. Published 21 September 20160

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service through intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

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

The inspection took place on 2 August 2016 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice that we would be visiting the service. This was because the service provides a domiciliary service and we wanted to make sure that staff would be available. The last inspection of the service took place on 17 October 2013 and the provider was compliant in all areas inspected.

New Hope Care Brook Road is a domiciliary care and supported living service registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. The service currently provides care to nine people.

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.

People were supported by staff who had undergone recruitment checks to ensure that they were safe to work. Staff understood how to report concerns of abuse and how to manage risks to keep people safe.

People were supported with their medication in a safe way. There were sufficient numbers of staff available to support people.

Staff displayed a good knowledge of how to support people and told us they were receiving training and supervision. There were gaps identified in staff training and staff had not always received training relevant to the needs of the people they support.

Staff were aware of the need to gain consent from people and people had their rights upheld in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People were supported with meals where required and had staff support to access healthcare services when needed.

Staff were kind and treated people with dignity. Staff supported people to maintain their independence where possible.

People were involved in the assessment and review of their care. Staff knew people well and understood their preferences with regards to their care.

People were informed on how they could make complaints and were given the opportunity to feedback on the service in questionnaires.

Relatives and staff spoke positively about the leadership at the service and felt able to approach the registered manager when needed.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and the registered manager had clear plans for the future development of the service.

The agency was supporting 21 people who received care in their home and 10 people who lived in supported living accommodation on the day of our inspection. We spoke with six people who used the service, two of their relatives and five members of staff by telephone. At the office we met with the registered manager.

We saw that people's needs were assessed before they started using the service and from this a care plan was developed. This showed staff how to support the person to meet their needs. One person said, “I have no complaints about New Hope, they do a really great job and help me.”

People were supported to take their medicines when needed by staff who had received the required training so they could support people safely. One person told us, “Staff help me to take my medicines and it is always at the time that I should have it.”

Appropriate pre-employment checks were completed when staff were recruited to ensure they were suitable to work with the people who used the service.

People were asked for their views about the service and these were listened to. Action was taken to make improvements where needed to benefit people who used the service.

People’s records were clear and detailed how the person had been supported. Records were kept securely to respect people’s confidentiality.

We visited the service over a two-day period. The provider did not know we were coming. On the first day of our inspection, the manager told us that the computer systems were not available. This meant we could not get all the information we needed to form our judgement about the service provided so a second day was needed.we spoke with nine people using the service and four staff on the telephone after of visit.

People using the service told us they were happy with the service provided and were involved in their care. All nine people told us staff treated them with respect, were friendly and supportive. Staff spoken to was able to tell us about people's needs so that they received care in a way that they preferred. This meant people choices and preferences were respected.

We looked at three care records. These showed us that information about people's care needs were not detailed with specific instructions about how to support people with medical conditions. This meant staff were not given all the information they needed to support people.

We found that people who use the service were protected from the risk of abuse, because staff had been trained to recognise the signs of abuse. This meant staff had the skills and knowledge to ensure people were protected.

The provider had systems in place to monitor the service provided to people but these were not always used.This meant the provider would not have the information to improve the service when required.