This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. Not everyone using Oceans Care receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

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. There was a registered manger in post at the time of our inspection.

People were supported by staff who were aware of their responsibilities to raise any concerns they may have in terms of people's health and wellbeing. Where safeguarding concerns had been raised, they had been responded to an acted on appropriately. Staff were aware of the risks to people and were provided with information to assist them in managing those risks safely. People were supported to take their medicines as prescribed and staff competency checks were in

place to ensure staff followed correct procedures. Accidents and incidents were reported and responded to well.

Pre-assessment processes in place provided staff with the information they needed to support people effectively and to meet their needs. Staff had received an induction and training that provided them with the skills to meet people's needs. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People said staff were kind and caring and were respectful of their choices. People's preferences were taken into account, and staff ensured people’s privacy and dignity was maintained. People were supported by staff who knew them well and what was important to them. People were supported to maintain their independence. There was a system in place to record people's complaints which people and relatives knew about. Everyone we spoke with said that the service would respond well if they made a complaint.

The staff felt supported by the management team and people told us they felt the service was well led. Audits were in place to assess the quality of care of various areas within the service and the registered manager had a good oversight of people and their needs. The registered manager had a clear vision for the development and growth of the service and had recently invested in new technology to assist with this.

This inspection took place on 24 February 2016 and was announced. Oceans Care Services Limited provides personal care to seven people in their own homes. This was the first inspection of the service since they were registered with the commission in July 2015.

There was a registered manager at the service who was present throughout the 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 told us they felt safe whilst receiving support from staff at the service. Staff had a good understanding of possible indicators of abuse and told us action they would take should they become aware of any concerns. We saw that the provider had taken action to minimise individual risks to peoples support.

Only staff who had received training in safe medicine administration were able to give medicines. We found that some improvements were needed in the recording of information about the medicines people were currently taking.

People told us that staff were caring. People had been involved in planning their care and most people were able to tell staff on a daily basis of how they wanted their care delivered. People told us that care was reviewed with them but we saw that care plans were not always updated following a review to reflect the person’s current needs.

Some people were supported by regular staff who had got to know them well. Some people we spoke with told us they wanted to have more consistent staff to support them. People were able to change their times of support and gave us examples of when the service had been flexible when changing support times.

Staff had received training on the Mental Capacity Act (2005), and staff were able to describe how they supported people in a way which followed the principles of this legislation. Further training had been provided to staff to ensure they could meet people’s needs..

Staff told us they felt supported in their role and were able to seek advice at any time of the day. There were systems in place for staff to feedback any concerns or changes in care needs to the registered manager.

People and their relatives were aware of how to raise concerns or complaints.

People and their relatives were happy with how the service was managed. The service did not always have robust systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service. Quality monitoring systems had not identified where improvements were needed.