The inspection took place on 18 December 2018 and was announced.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to older people living in their own homes. The agency provided personal care to 60 people at the time of our inspection.

There was a registered manager in place. 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. The registered manager assisted us with our inspection.

Although people received the medicines they required, we found where people had topical creams, staff did not record formally when they had applied these. We have made a recommendation to the registered provider in this respect.

People’s care plans contained sufficient information to allow a staff member to know what care a person needed. However, they lack the individuality needed to demonstrate a person-centred approach. This included a lack of personal histories, likes, dislikes in relation to people and individualised care plans recording people’s needs.

Registered services are required to inform CQC of significant events. However, we found the registered manager had failed to always do this. We also received mixed feedback about the management of the agency which did not reflect a person-centred approach towards people.

Sufficient staff, who had gone through a robust recruitment process, were employed by the agency and people told us that staff generally arrived on time.

Risks to people had been identified and guidance was in place for staff to help keep people safe. This included training staff in safeguarding people from abuse. We saw evidence of the agency working with the local authority in relation to the safeguarding concerns.

Staff understood their responsibility in following good infection control procedures and they received sufficient support and training to enable them to work competently in their role.

People’s individual dietary needs were recognised and people were supported to access healthcare professional input when required. People had their needs assessed prior to receiving care from the agency. At this point, people’s capacity was assessed to determine whether they had capacity to consent to the care in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People were cared for by staff who had developed good relationships with them, were caring and showed them respect and dignity. Staff encouraged people to be independent and people told us they were cared for by a consistent staff team.

People said they would know how to complain should they need to. The registered manager held evidence to demonstrate they responded to any concerns raised with them. The registered manager had a drive to provide a good service and as such obtained feedback from people and their relatives and carried out spot checks on staff. Staff told us they felt supported by management and met together to discuss all aspects of the agency. The agency worked in conjunction with external partners to provide a good service to people.

During this inspection we found one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and one breach of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. We also made one recommendation to the registered provider. You can see what action we have told the registered provider to take at the end of our report.