The inspection took place on 18 December and was announced. The inspection continued on 19 December 2017 and was again announced.

Potens Dorset Domiciliary Care Agency provide a range of care and support services to adults, young people and children with learning disabilities, autism, mental health, physical disabilities and associated problems. They support individuals in their homes, on a one to one basis, either for a short period of time, such as getting ready for school, college or for longer sessions completing specific activities such as community support, attending clubs or day to day living.

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 younger disabled adults and children. At the time of inspection the service was supporting 24 children and four young adults.

This service also provides care and support to a person living in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Not everyone using Potens Dorset Domiciliary Care Agency receives a 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.

The service had not had a registered manager in place for 73 days. The manager was a registered manager for another Potens service and was in the process of adding Potens Dorset Domiciliary Care Agency to their registration. The application had been received by our registration team. 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 had not received copies of the complaints procedure and verbal concerns were not being recorded. There was a system in place to record complaints which captured steps taken and outcomes. Verbal complaints were recorded and reflective learning took place.

Young adults had not recently been involved in the review or planning of their care and support. People’s current interests and aspirations were not reflected in their plans or reviewed regularly by staff in key worker meetings.

Children’s all about me profiles were not up to date. These were pictorial and recorded what the children liked to be called, where they liked going, their favourite toys, what they liked to do, their special interests, favourite foods and any dislikes they had.

Parents had recently been involved in the review of their children’s short break care plans. These plans reflected current needs and were updated as and when needs changed.

People were supported to access the community and take part in activities that they had social and cultural interests in. We read that people were supported to access clubs, swimming, parks and go on holidays.

Staff had a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Information was shared with staff so that they had a good understanding of what was expected from them.

People, relatives and staff felt that the service was well led. The management team encouraged an open working environment. People and staff alike were valued and worked within an organisation which ensured a positive culture was well established and inclusive. The management had good relationships with people and delivered support hours to them.

The service was aware of their responsibilities under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, Duty of Candour, that is, their duty to be honest

The inspection took place on 20 July and was announced. The inspection continued on 21 July 2017.

The Domiciliary Care Agency Dorset is part of Potensial Ltd. They provide a range of care and support services to adults, young people and children with learning disabilities, autism, mental health and physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection the service delivered personal care to four people.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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 and staff told us that the service was safe. Staff were able to tell us how they would report and recognise signs of abuse and had received safeguarding training.

Care plans were in place which detailed the care and support people needed to remain safe whilst having control and making choices about how they chose to live their life's. Each person had a care file which also included outcomes and guidelines to make sure staff supported people in a way they preferred. Risk assessments were completed, regularly reviewed and up to date.

Medicines were managed safely and only administered by staff that were trained to give medicines.

Staff had a good knowledge of people’s support needs and received regular mandatory training as well as training specific to their roles for example, autism, epilepsy, and learning disability.

Staff told us they received regular supervisions which were carried out by management. We reviewed records which confirmed this. A staff member told us, “I receive regular supervisions and find them useful”.

Staff were aware of the Mental Capacity Act and training records showed that they had received training in this. Consent was sought were possible and the service completed capacity assessments and recorded best interest decisions. This ensured that people were not at risk of decisions being made which may not be in their best interest.

People were supported with cooking and preparation of meals in their home. People were supported to choose meals through menu planning. The training record showed that staff had attended food safety training.

People were supported to access healthcare appointments as and when required and staff followed GP and District Nurses advice when supporting people with ongoing care needs.

People told us that staff were caring. During visits we observed positive interactions between staff and people. This showed us that people felt comfortable with staff supporting them.

Staff treated people in a dignified manner. Staff had a good understanding of people’s likes, dislikes, interests and communication needs. Information was available in various easy read and pictorial formats. This meant that people were supported by staff who knew them well.

People had their care and support needs assessed before using the service and care packages reflected needs identified in these. Outcomes were set by people and outcome focused reviews took place. These evidenced that people were actively supported to work towards their outcome areas and that achievements were recorded. Additional support was highlighted and provided. We saw that these were regularly reviewed by the service with people, families and health professionals when available.

People, staff and relatives were encouraged to feedback. We reviewed the findings from quality feedback questionnaires and found that actions had been dealt with. The service told us that they would review the current format to create an easy read version of the survey.

There was an active system in place for recording complaints which captured the detail and evidenced steps taken to address them. We saw that there were no outstanding complaints in place. This d