Standon Gardens is a group of 25 apartments for older people. Standon Gardens Domiciliary Services offers personal care to people who live in the apartments. Not everyone using Standon Gardens Domiciliary Services receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

At our last inspection14 January 2016 we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on-going monitoring that demonstrated risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

People’s care was planned to suit their needs and keep them safe. Staff understood their responsibility to protect people from harm and poor care. The provider followed recruitment processes to ensure staff were suitable to work within a caring environment. People received their medicines because there were arrangements in place for safe storage, administration and stock control.

People are supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice.

People who requested support with their meals were provided with a choice of nutritious food which they enjoyed. Staff liaised with health care professionals to help people maintain their health and wellbeing.

Staff provided kind, compassionate and considerate care. People were given opportunities to voice their opinions and were confident that if they raised a complaint they would be listened to and it would be investigated thoroughly.

People and staff felt supported by the management arrangements in place. An open and inclusive environment was provided for people and staff. There were audits in place to monitor the quality of the service to drive improvements in care.

Further information is in the detailed findings below

We inspected this service on 14 January 2016. This was an announced inspection and we notified the provider two days before our inspection, in order to arrange home visits with people who used the service. Our last inspection took place in November 2013 and at that time we found the provider was meeting the regulations we looked at.

Standon Garden consists of two blocks of apartments and there are 25 apartments; this includes four two bedroomed apartments and 21 one bedroomed apartments. People can own or rent their apartment and purchase care hours separately. At the time of our inspection, 13 people were receiving personal care support from the provider. Other people received a service to check on their welfare but this was outside of our regulations.

There was a registered manager in the service. 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 felt safe when they received care. Risk assessments identified action to be taken to minimise the chance of harm occurring to people and staff understood this. Staff understood how to recognise potential harm and protect people from abuse and knew how to report concerns. Recruitment checks were made to confirm staff were of good character to work with people and sufficient staff were available to meet people's support needs.

People had capacity to make decisions about their own care and their consent was sought before staff provided care and support. People received an agreed level of staff support at a time they wanted it. People were happy with how the staff supported them and were helped to take their medicine as prescribed.

There was a small team of staff who had the skills to meet their needs. People knew who was delivering their support and the provider was flexible and responsive to changes in people’s needs. Staff knew people well and people retained their independence and managed their own health care.

People chose how support was delivered and they were involved in the review of their care. People were positive about the way staff treated them and staff were kind and compassionate. Staff listened to people’s views and people knew how to make a complaint or raise concerns.

The provider had systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of care and encouraged people and their relatives to give their feedback and used this to drive improvements.

When we inspected Standon Gardens Domiciliary Services, fifteen people were provided with personal care in their apartments. We spoke with three of these people and a relative of another person. One person told us: “It’s first class. I couldn’t wish for better support and that’s the truth”. Another person said: “The care workers are very good, kind and respectful. They provide the care I need when I need it”. A relative told us: “We cannot fault the service; the care workers are lovely”.

When we looked at people's care plans, we saw that people had given their written consent to their contract of care. The care plans included personalised details about people's daily needs; their like and their dislikes. We saw that risk assessments included clear information to guide care workers when they provided personal care.

Standon Gardens employed eight care workers at the time of our inspection. We spoke with three of them. They described the training they had received in positive terms and told us they felt well-supported in their work.

We saw that there were quality assurance systems in place. The registered manager and care manager reviewed people’s care plans with them on a regular basis and they used questionnaires to gain feedback from people who used the service.

When we inspected the domiciliary care service provided by Standon Gardens Ltd, we found that people who lived in eight of the apartments had chosen to use it. Seven part-time care workers were employed to deliver personal care to the people who used the service.

We saw that people had given their consent to the care they received. This was recorded within the care plan file. The care plans provided guidance for care workers about how people wanted their individual needs to be met. Care plans were reviewed by a manager every month.

Because of their on-site base, care workers were able to respond to people quickly and flexibly. People received brief calls to check on their well-being and longer calls for bathing and other personal care. We spoke to two people who used the domiciliary care service. One person described the care workers as kind and reliable, "I cannot fault them". Another person told us, "If I ring the buzzer, they come straightaway". A relative of a person who used the service told us, "The care workers do an excellent job".

There have been no safeguarding concerns about the domiciliary care service provided by Standon Gardens Ltd.