This inspection took place on 21 and 26 June 2017 and was announced.

Quality Care Homegivers is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own home. On the day of our inspection there were 26 people using the service.

The service 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.

At our last inspection of May 2016, we rated the service as requires improvement because of concerns we identified in safety and well-led. We received an action plan stating the service would resolve those issues in a month. At this inspection we found the senior staff had systematically worked through an action plan to address those issues and improve the service.

We received positive feedback from people who used the service. People told us they were supported by the same small groups of staff. The staff came on time to support people and occasionally when there were problems, the senior staff informed the person and made arrangements to ensure the support was provided.

Action had been taken by the management of the service to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed and this information was clearly documented. Risk assessments were in place with the guidance for staff to follow to reduce the risk of harm to people. Staff had received training in the safeguarding of vulnerable people.

There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people’s needs. People received support from a staff team that treated them with kindness, respect and dignity.

Staff were supported with a planned induction and on going training to develop their knowledge and skills. Supervision, spot checks and appraisals were carried out by managers to support staff.

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.

The service supported people as stated in their support plan and this included for some people ensuring they had enough and choices of what to eat and drink. Arrangements were in place and information recorded when the staff had supported people to meet professionals such as GP’s regarding their health care needs.

The service staff supported people to be involved with their own support planning and was flexible to changing the times of support so that people were assisted with personal appointments. Each support plan had been written with the person to identify how their support would be provided to address their individual support needs. Before support was provided an assessment of the persons needs was completed to ensure the staff could meet the person’s needs.

There was a clear complaints system in place and this was explained to people, once they used the service and reminded to them at times of review.

The philosophy of the service was open, transparent and focused on the needs of people who used the service. Staff were supported by a management team who they described as understanding and helpful. The senior staff had systems in place to monitor and audit the service and to take subsequent actions as required.

This inspection took place on the 18 and 19 May 2016 and was announced.

Quality Care Homegivers is a small domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own home. On the day of our inspection there were 17 people using the service.

The service had a manager who was new in post, having been employed within the last six months. They were in the process of registering with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the. 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.

We received only positive feedback from people who used the service. People told us they were supported by regular staff who provided consistency of care and they were treated with dignity and respect with no concerns about their safety. Everyone we spoke with expressed their satisfaction with the way the service was managed and the care and support provided by staff.

There was a variation in the quality of care planning including risk assessment and guidance for staff with actions to protect people from the risk of harm. Risk assessments in relation to the management of people’s medicines were not always sufficiently detailed or accurate.

The manager was in the process of improving systems to ensure information was consistent and care plans were regularly reviewed and updated to reflect people’s changing needs.

There were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people’s needs. People received care from a staff team that treated them with kindness and were mindful of protecting their rights to choice, dignity and respect.

Staff were supported with a planned induction and ongoing training opportunities. However, planning for supervision and access to team meetings was sporadic. The manager was new in post and told us they planned to provide regular opportunities to staff to discuss their work performance and plan their training and development needs.

The culture of the service was open, transparent and focused on the needs of people who used the service. Staff were supported by the manager who they described as supportive, approachable and hands on.

People found the manager responded promptly to any concerns. People were provided with opportunities to express their views regarding the quality of the service, through annual satisfaction surveys. The provider recognised that further work was needed to audit the care and to ensure feedback from people was analysed and used to in planning continuous improvement of the service.