The Beeches Homecare Services is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes in Malmesbury, Chippenham, Cirencester and surrounding towns and villages. At time of our inspection 132 people used the service.

The inspection took place over two days on the 18 and 19 April 2017. The inspection was unannounced on the first day.

There was 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 who use the service and their relatives were positive about the care they received and praised the quality of the staff and management. Comments included “It’s called care at home and they [carers] do care about me. They don’t just care for me. They care about me.”, “I admire them [carers] greatly. They have a hard job but they are always cheerful. They are wonderful. I love them all.”, “There’s not one I don’t get on with. If there was I would say so. They are very good about asking me about how I want them to go about things. I’ve no complaints at all – I’d say that I’m a happy customer.”

People told us they felt safe when receiving care and were involved in developing and reviewing their care plans. Systems were in place to protect people from abuse and harm and staff knew how to use them. Most people said they looked forward to the care worker coming and told us they were confident staff knew what they were doing.

People said the care workers generally arrived on time, and they would receive a call to inform them if there were any problems. Speaking with relatives they told us they were very happy with the service provided and didn’t have any concerns about the safety of their family member.

Staff understood the needs of the people they were providing care for. Staff were appropriately trained and skilled. They received a thorough induction when they started working for the service and demonstrated a good understanding of their role and responsibilities. Staff had completed training to ensure the care and support provided to people was safe and effective to meet their

needs.

The service was responsive to people’s needs and wishes. People had regular contact with the office and branch manager to provide feedback about their care and there was an effective complaints procedure in place. People said they had no complaints about the service they received, however they knew who to contact if they did have a complaint. People felt there was always someone in the office they could talk to and they also had contact numbers out of office hours, in case of an emergency.

The provider regularly assessed and monitored the quality of the service provided. Feedback from people and their relatives was encouraged and was used to make improvements to the service.

Staff told us they felt supported by the management team. The managers were accessible and any concerns raised would be dealt with immediately.