The inspection took place on 27, 28 and 29 September 2017 and was announced.

West Moors Care at Home is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was providing support to 120 people. The service was run from a location in the centre of West Moors.

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.

People told us that they received rota’s so that they knew when staff would be visiting, but they were not always told about any changes to these rota’s.

Quality assurance measures were in place but there were some gaps in oversight. The service had plans in place to improve the oversight and ensure that this was consistently robust.

Staff were aware of their responsibilities in protecting people from harm and knew how to report any concerns about people's safety or wellbeing. People had individual risk assessments giving staff the guidance and information they needed to support people safely.

People were supported by staff who were recruited safely and were familiar to them. People and relatives felt that staff had the sufficient skills and knowledge to support them and we saw that staff had access to relevant training for their role. Staff received regular supervision and appraisals and we saw that they also had competency checks to monitor their practice and drive improvements.

Staff understood what support people needed to manage their medicines safely and these were given as prescribed. There were processes in place to audit the accuracy of recording medicines.

Staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act and were able to explain how they considered capacity and consent when they supported people.

Staff understood the communication needs of people they supported and we observed them communicating with people in ways which were meaningful to them.

Where people received support from staff to eat and drink sufficiently, we saw that staff offered choices and prepared foods in the way people liked. People were supported to access a range of professionals where needed, these included dieticians, GP’s and Occupational Therapy.

People were supported by staff who were kind and caring in their approach. Staff respected people’s privacy and information was stored confidentially.

Care plans were person centred and provide details about what was important to people and were regularly reviewed when people’s needs changed.

People and relatives knew how to complain if they needed to and where complaints had been received, these had been recorded and responded to.

Staff were confident in their roles and understood their responsibilities. People and relatives felt that the office was easy to contact and staff were generally helpful. Communication between the office and staff was effective and the registered manager spoke highly about their staff team.