This was an announced inspection that took place on 4 July 2018, follow up phone calls were made to one person who used the service and staff.

Pathfinders Community Support Ltd provides personal care and treatment for adults living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection visit five people were using the service. Not everyone using Pathfinders Community Support Ltd received a regulated activity. The 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 take into account any wider social care provided.

This was the first inspection of the service since they were registered on 7 November 2013. At this inspection we found evidence to support the rating of good.

A registered manager was 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.

Staff had the appropriate knowledge and skills they needed to provide safe and effective care to the person using the service. Staff knew how to keep the person safe and followed the guidance and information detailed in the person’s care plan and risk assessments.

Staff were employed in sufficient numbers to support the person and treated the person with care and compassion and ensure their dignity was preserved at all times.

Staff assisted the person to access the community, this included seeing relevant health care professionals and shopping for and assisting to prepare and support their healthy eating regime.

The registered manager and staff used the knowledge they gained from supporting the person to review and update the person’s care plan so that they could respond to the person’s changing needs.

Staff worked closely with health and social care professionals to ensure the care offered was in the best interests of the person. The registered manager provided on-going support to staff through day to day contact and supervision.

The provider had implemented a quality assurance system to ensure that the person who used the service had good quality care and support. The registered manager undertook a range of audits to ensure staff were provided personalised care that centred on the safety and welfare of the person being supported.

We spoke with three people who used the service, the relative of someone using the service and five members of staff working at the service. We also spoke with the registered manager as part of our inspection at this service.

At the time of our inspection there were seven people using the service. All of the people we spoke with were happy with their care and support. One person said: "It's been really good." Another person spoke to us about their regular care worker and said: "She's ever so nice." None of the people using the service had any concerns about the care and support they were receiving.

Staff described being supported and said they were trained on an on-going basis. Staff were positive about the management at the service, one staff member said: "The manager is always there for us. We're really supported."

We looked at staff rotas and saw that the service employed enough staff to meet the needs of people using the service.

We reviewed the support plans for all of the people using the service and found these to contain an assessment of people's needs as well as guidance for staff on providing safe and appropriate support for people.

The service was regularly assessing its quality and people had the opportunity to express their views about how the service was being run.

We found that people's mental capacity was not being assessed by the service and that consent to people's plan of care and support was not being always being obtained for people.

There were three people using the service at the time of our inspection. One person was being assessed and was due to start using the service over the following weeks. As part of our inspection we spoke with two people using the service and one person who was due to start using the service who had been through the assessment process. We also spoke with four members of staff working at the service, the Director of the agency, and two relatives of the person who was going to start using the service.

People using the service were complimentary about the people who looked after them. One person commented that, "They are doing a very good job. I'm very happy with them." Nobody using the service had any concerns about the care being delivered.

Staff we spoke with were all happy working for the service. They told us they felt supported and adequately trained to carry out their roles. One support worker we spoke with said, "We are constantly having our training updated. If we need any extra training we just have to ask." A care co-ordinator we talked to told us, "I love it here. I have a really good rapport with the people I work with. Staff are all nice and I am getting on alright."

We found that the service had detailed care plans and risk assessments in place for people using the service. Staffing levels were adequate and staff were well trained. There were quality monitoring processes in place to ensure the service was assessing the quality of the care being delivered.