This inspection took place on 17 May 2016 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours' notice because the location provides domiciliary care and we needed to be sure that someone would be at the office.

Next Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to people living in their own homes. The office is based in the city of Leicester and the service currently provided care and support to people living in Leicester. At the time of our inspection there were 5 people using the service.

Next Care Ltd had 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 told us they felt safe with the care workers and the support they received. All care workers had undertaken safeguarding training and knew what to do if they had concerns about the well-being of any of the people using the service. Potential risks to people's health and well-being had been assessed and measures to reduce risks were detailed in the care plan for care workers to refer to.

People said they thought care workers were well-trained and knew how to support them effectively. Care workers had a thorough induction and on-going training to keep their skills up to date. Care workers were safely recruited to help ensure they were fit to work with people using the service.

People made decisions about their care and support needs. Care workers sought consent before they helped people and respected people's choices and decisions.

Care workers supported some people with their meals. People said they were pleased with the choice they were given and how their meals were prepared and served in line with their dietary needs, personal and cultural preferences.

Care workers supported people to liaise with health care professionals if there were any concerns about their health.

People told us the care workers were caring and treated them with dignity and respect. People's choice of lifestyle was respected and their independence was promoted.

People were directly involved in the planning of their care and encouraged to be independent and made choices about how they wanted their support provided.

Care workers provide a personalised service that was responsive to people's needs. Care workers were knowledgeable about the needs of people and took account of their preferences such as times, cultural and diverse needs. People told us care workers always arrived on time and stayed for the agreed length of time in order to ensure people were safe and their needs were met.

People told us they were aware of how to raise concerns. They were confident that any concerns would be responded to by the registered manager.

All the people we spoke with said they were happy with the service which they said was well-run. People told us the registered manager visited them in person and telephoned them regularly to check on their well-being and monitor their care and support. There were systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service, which included audits and independent surveys to enable people and their families to leave feedback on their experience of the service.