This was the service's first inspection and took place announced on 24 November 2016.

Spirit Home Care is registered to provide personal care. The service is situated in Leicester and provides care to people who live in their own homes in Leicester mainly in the LE4 and LE5 postcode areas. The service caters for older people. There were 27 people using this service at the time of our inspection.

The service has a registered manager. This 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 using the service and relatives told us they were satisfied with all aspects of the service and would recommend it to others. They said the staff were caring and respectful of their cultural needs. The staff team were multicultural and multilingual and both male and female staff were employed. This meant people’s language and gender preferences could be met.

The service provides care in two Leicester postcode areas, LE4 and LE5. The staff team reflected the cultural makeup of these areas where the languages spoken were predominately English, Gujarati, Hindi and Punjabi. The service’s offices, based in LE4, had a friendly and welcoming atmosphere and people, relatives and staff were welcome to phone or visit the office whenever they wanted to.

Staff provided support in the way people wanted it. Records showed that each person had an up-to-date personalised care plans that staff followed. People and relatives, where applicable, were fully involved in the care planning process and signed their agreement to what was being provided.

People mostly had regular staff so they had the opportunity to build relationships with them. Staff were caring and kind and we found many examples of them going out of their way to support people and meet their needs. Staff knew how to keep people safe and protected them from accidents and incidents.

People, relatives and staff told us the service had a positive and happy culture. They said the registered manager was a caring person and this was felt throughout the service. The registered manager knew all the people using the service by name and had a good understanding of their care needs. Staff told us they were happy working for the service and made many positive comments about it.

The registered manager and staff communicated well with people and relatives and listened to their views. This had resulted in ongoing positive changes and improvements being made to the service.