The inspection took place on 21 November 2016. This was an announced inspection. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of the inspection as this is a domiciliary care agency and we wanted to ensure the manager was available in the office to meet us.

Panacea Senior Care Limited is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care to people with dementia, mental health, physical disability, younger adults and older people in their own homes. At the time of inspection, Panacea Senior Care Limited domiciliary care service provided support to five people but only three people were receiving support with personal care. Five members of staff were delivering regulated activity.

On the day of the inspection, the service had a manager who had applied for registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 using the service and their relatives were very happy with the service and found staff caring, friendly and professional. The service delivered a person-centred service that met people’s individual health and care needs. People’s nutrition and hydration needs were met and were appropriately recorded in daily care records. People were happy with staff’s punctuality and found them trustworthy and the service reliable. They were assisted with medicines and there were clear medicines assessments in place to enable staff to support people safely. There were detailed daily care delivery records giving a clear account of how people were supported.

Staff were skilled, experienced and well-trained and able to demonstrate their understanding of the needs and preferences of the people they cared for by giving examples of how they supported people. Staff received on-going support and regular supervision. The service followed safe recruitment practices and carried out appropriate recruitment checks before staff worked with people.

Care plans were person-centred and recorded people’s individual needs, likes and dislikes. Risk assessments were detailed and provided sufficient information and instructions to staff on the safe management of identified risks.

The service followed appropriate safeguarding procedures and staff demonstrated a good understanding on how to protect people against abuse and harm, and their role in promptly reporting poor care and abuse.

The service implemented good procedures around Mental Capacity Act 2005 and documented how best to support people that lacked capacity to make decisions.

The service had good systems and processes to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the care delivery. The manager regularly visited people’s homes to seek their feedback and observe staff supporting people with their care needs, and addressed any concerns raised. The service was in the process of reviewing annual feedback survey forms. People and their relatives told us they were extremely happy with the manager and found them approachable and kind.