This inspection took place on 19 June 2018. The last Care Quality Commission (CQC) comprehensive inspection of the service was carried out in February 2017. At that inspection we gave the service an overall rating of ‘good’.

Simply Care Partners Liability Partnership LLP is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own home. At the time of our inspection twenty people were using the service. Not everyone using the service receives the regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’, that is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided.

At this inspection we found some aspects of the service had deteriorated resulting in the overall rating for the service changing from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement.’ The provider’s recruitment arrangements had not been robustly maintained. The provider had not queried discrepancies or sought additional assurances about the information provided by new staff in support of their applications to work. This meant the provider did not have all the assurances they needed about staff’s suitability to support people.

Staff supported people to take their prescribed medicines. Staff maintained written records each time medicines were administered. We noted this did not reflect current best practice issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to ensure a clear and accurate record was always maintained. The registered manager told us they would review their current medicines policy and procedure to ensure this reflected best practice.

The provider’s systems for assessing and monitoring the quality of the service had not been entirely effective. The issues we identified above around staff recruitment checks and compliance with current best practice in relation to medicines indicated a lack of management oversight of these aspects of the service which could have an impact on the quality and safety of the support people received. The registered manager said they would be taking immediate action after this inspection to rectify the issues we found. The provider wrote to us after the inspection to advise they had updated the written record staff were required to complete so that this reflected current best practice

Notwithstanding the issues above we found checks of other aspects of the service were regularly undertaken to review quality and safety in these areas. These included checks of people’s records, ‘medicines observations checks’ to review staff’s competency in this area and unannounced spot checks to people’s homes to observe staff’s general working practices when undertaking their duties. Where any gaps or shortfalls were identified through these checks prompt action was taken to remedy these including supporting and encouraging staff to learn from mistakes.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs. People and their relatives were satisfied with the continuity, consistency and timeliness of support they received from staff during weekdays. However, they had mixed experiences about the support provided by staff at weekends. The provider was already aware of these concerns and had used their learning from people’s complaints to make required improvements. Feedback obtained by the provider from recent quality checks indicated that timeliness of visits appeared to have improved which was confirmed by a relative we spoke with. We will check at the next inspection of the service whether this improvement had been sustained and maintained.

People said they were safe when being supported by staff. Staff were well supported to take appropriate action to ensure people were protected if they suspected they were at risk of abuse. Staff had access to current information and guidance on how to minimise identified risks to people due to their specific needs. This helped to keep people safe from injury or har

Simply Care Partners provides personal care services to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection ten people were receiving care from this service.

At the last inspection in December 2014, the service was rated Good.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

People said they were happy with the service provided and that staff helped them with the care and support they needed.

There were processes in place to help make sure people were protected from the risk of abuse and staff were aware of safeguarding vulnerable adult’s procedures and understood how to safeguard the people they supported. People’s individual risk was assessed to help keep them safe and staff had a good knowledge of this.

People and their relatives thought staff were caring and respectful. Staff knew the people they were supporting and provided a personalised service for them. Staff explained how they helped maintain people’s privacy and dignity.

The staff we spoke with told us they enjoyed their job and felt supported by the registered manager. Staff were up to date with training and the service followed appropriate recruitment practices.

People’s records were kept up to date and covered all aspects of the care and identified the support people needed so staff could meet their needs. Records were updated and regularly reviewed when people’s circumstances or healthcare needs changed.

People were asked about their food and drink choices and staff assisted them with their meals when required. People were supported to take their medicine when they needed it.

The manager regularly spoke with people to make sure they were happy with the service and carried out spot checks to review the quality of the care provided.

This inspection took place on 15 December and was announced. We told the provider two days before our visit that we would be coming.

Simply Care Partners provides personal care services to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection four people were receiving care from this service. At our last inspection in June 2013 the service was meeting the regulations inspected.

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.

People and their relatives told us they felt safe and that staff treated them well. There were processes in place to help make sure people were protected from the risk of abuse and staff were aware of safeguarding vulnerable adult’s procedures and understood how to safeguard the people they supported.

Staff were up to date with training and the service followed appropriate recruitment practices.

People were involved in making decisions about their care, treatment and support and people’s care records reflected this. People’s individual risk was assessed to help keep them safe. Care records and risk assessments were regularly reviewed. Staff supported people to attend appointments and liaised with their GP and other healthcare professionals to help meet their health needs.

People were asked about their food and drink choices and staff assisted them with their meals when required. People were supported to take their medicine when they needed it.

People and their relatives thought staff were caring and respectful. Staff knew the people they were supporting and provided a personalised service for them. Staff explained the methods they used to help maintain people’s privacy and dignity.

Relatives we spoke to said they would complain if they needed to, they all knew who the manager was and felt comfortable speaking with her about any problems.

The manager regularly spoke with people to make sure they were happy with the service and carried out spot checks to review the quality of the care provided.