About the service: Right at Home West Midlands (South) is a franchise of the Right at Home Group. It provides personal care to adults living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, 10 people were using the service who needed assistance with their personal care.

People’s experience of using this service: People told us they received a good service and felt safe. Accidents and incidents were recorded and investigated, and risk assessments were in place. The registered manager understood their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and staff had been appropriately trained. Arrangements were in place for the safe administration of medicines.

There were enough staff on duty to meet the needs of people. The provider had an effective recruitment and selection procedure in place, and carried out relevant vetting checks when they employed staff. Staff were suitably trained and received regular supervisions and appraisals.

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.

Staff treated people with dignity and respect and helped to maintain people’s independence by encouraging them to care for themselves where possible.

People’s needs were assessed before they started using the service. Support plans were written in a person-centred way. Person-centred means ensuring the person is at the centre of any care or support and their individual wishes, needs and choices were considered

Staff provided companionship to people and supported them to meet their social needs.

The provider had a complaints procedure in place, and people were aware of how to make a complaint. An effective quality assurance process was in place. People and staff were regularly consulted about the quality of the service.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated Good (April 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection. It was scheduled based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

This inspection took place on 20 January 2016 and was announced. Right at Home provides personal care to eight people who live in their own homes some of whom are living with dementia. This was the services first inspection since they were registered with the Commission in September 2014.

There is no registered manager at the service at present. However, the nominated individual was overseeing the day to day management of the service and was in the process of applying to become the registered manager themselves. 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 a 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 the service. Staff were able to tell us about the different types of abuse people may be at risk of and described action they would take should they have any concerns. Where risks had been identified to people safe systems of working had been put in place to reduce the risk wherever possible.

People told us they were supported by consistent staff who had got to know them well. People were able to state the times and days they required support and staff told us about the need to work flexibly should people wish to change their times of support.

People were supported to make choices in all aspects of their care. Staff were able to tell us how they supported people in line with the Mental Capacity Act (2005) although this wasn’t always correctly reflected in people’s care plans.

Staff had received training in medication administration. Although people received their medication safely most of the time improvements were needed in the recording and monitoring of medication administration.

People told us they felt cared for. People were fully involved in planning their care to ensure they could receive support in the way they wished. Peoples care was reviewed with them and care plans were altered accordingly if changes in care were requested.

Staff felt valued and supported in their role and there were systems in place for staff to feedback any suggestions for improvements. Staff had received training around people’s specific care needs and we saw that training was planned to ensure staff kept up to date with care knowledge.

People, their relatives and staff were aware of how to raise concerns or complaints. Where concerns had been raised the provider had taken action to resolve the concern for the person.

People were happy with how the service was managed. Systems were in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service although some of these systems were not consistently effective and had failed to identify where improvements were needed in the monitoring of some aspects of the service. The provider sought feedback from people and had used this to further improve the service.