About the service: SKCA (formerly Special Kids Care Agency) is a community based service providing home care support to 29 children and young people living in their own homes.

People’s experience of using this service:

People benefited from an exceptionally caring service. People were extremely satisfied with the quality of the service they received and praised the caring and compassionate nature of the care staff. People had a core care team who knew their needs very well. Relatives told us they were involved in planning and consulted about care decisions.

People, relatives and particularly staff praised the supportive and responsive management structure in place at the service. The registered manager and registered provider enabled an open culture that advocated for people and their families which resulted in positive outcomes.

A very person-centred approach had been adopted in the assessing, planning and delivery of people's care and support. Care plans were exceptionally detailed.

Many relatives spoke of the service being tailor made to meet their loved one’s care needs. The service actively supported people to gain independence and learn life skills. The service offered a continuity of care as young people entered adulthood.

People and families were extremely complimentary about the support provided and told us how they had been able to maintain wider family relationships, work, education and social lives.

Relatives told us they trusted staff to keep their loved ones safe. Procedures and policies relating to safeguarding people from harm were in place and accessible to staff.

Detailed risk assessments were in place for people using the service and were reviewed and updated regularly.

The service operated a rigorous recruitment process which resulted in highly skilled and dedicated staff with low staff turnover.

Staff were well trained, skilled and motivated to deliver a high-quality level of care. Staff had received training tailored to people’s individual care needs and equipment used.

People were supported to maintain good health and had access to healthcare services. Staff worked with a range of health professionals to ensure they knew people’s care needs. Medicines were managed safely.

More information is in the full report

Rating at last inspection: Good. The last inspection report was published on 23 June 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Outstanding.

We carried out an announced inspection on 22 April 2016 and made telephone calls to people who used the service and staff on 28 April 2016.

Special Kids Care Agency is a community based service providing home care support to children and young people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, there were thirty children and young adults being supported by the service.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

There were risk assessments in place that gave guidance to staff on how risks to people could be minimised. Staff knew how to safeguard people from the risk of possible harm.

The provider had effective recruitment processes in place and there were sufficient staff to support people safely. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities and would seek people’s consent before they provided any care or support. Staff received supervision and support, and had been trained to meet people’s individual needs.

People were supported by caring and respectful staff. Staff felt that they were given the opportunity to get to know the people they supported as well as the families. Relatives we spoke with felt comfortable with the care staff supporting their children.

People’s needs had been assessed, and care plans took account of their individual, preferences, and choices. Care plans were adapted around school routines and holidays.

The provider had a formal process for handling complaints and concerns. They encouraged feedback and acted on the comments received to continually improve the quality of the service. The provider also had effective quality monitoring processes in place to ensure that they were meeting the required standards of care.

We spoke with relatives and staff on 13 February 2014. Relatives we spoke with all told us that they had been involved in the initial assessment, which formed the care and support plan. They told us that the agency kept them informed of any changes and they were regularly asked about their views on the service they had received. We saw that people and/or their relatives were asked to consent to care support and were given clear information on how to withdraw their consent. We saw that care plans provided detailed information on how people needed to be supported and risk assessments were personalised. A relative we spoke with described the agency as ‘’brilliant” another described the staff as being “fantastic”.

The agency had a child protection policy and procedure which contained details of how to report any allegation of abuse. The agency had a robust system in place to ensure that staff were suitable for their roles. Relatives that we spoke with all had a copy of the agency complaints policy and procedures and where aware of how and where they could make a compliant should the need arise