This inspection of Woodhall Care Services Ltd took place between 16 July and 2 August 2018 and was announced. We gave the provider 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit to ensure someone would be in the office. This was the first inspection of the service since the service moved to a new location in August 2017.

Woodhall Care Services Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to both older people, adults, young people, people with learning and profound disabilities and people at the end of their life. Not everyone using Woodhall Care Services Ltd receives regulated activity. The Care Quality Commission (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 the time of this inspection, 180 people were receiving personal care from the service.

A registered manager was in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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 they felt safe. Staff knew how to recognise and report any concerns about people's safety and welfare. However, risks to people’s health and safety were not always assessed to help protect people from harm.

We found medicines were not always managed in a safe way. In particular, recording of actual medicines administered and topical medication.

People were provided with care and support by staff who were trained. Staff were skilled and competent to meet the needs of people. Staff told us they had received induction and training relevant to their roles. Staff demonstrated a sound awareness of infection control procedures.

There were enough staff deployed to ensure people received care. Safe recruitment procedures were followed to help ensure staff were of suitable character to work with vulnerable people.

Care records required further detail so staff knew what support to offer people. Care records did not always included information about people’s preferences, likes and dislikes.

The service was compliant with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 consent was sought before care and support was offered.

People said staff were kind and caring and treated them well. We saw positive relationships had developed between people and staff. People mostly received care from the same staff members. This allowed people and staff to become familiar with one another and it supported the staff to provide consistent care to people.

The service worked in partnership with other agencies including health professionals to help ensure people’s needs were met. People’s healthcare needs were assessed and plans of care put in place.

A complaints procedure was in place, which enabled people to raise any concerns or complaints about the care or support they received. However, more work was required around documenting actions taken and whether people were happy with outcomes.

Staff told us they felt supported in their roles and their views were listened to through supervision and team meetings.

People using the service, relatives and staff we spoke with were positive about the management team. Staff said the registered manager was approachable and supportive.

We found the providers quality monitoring systems were not always working as well as they should be. Some of the concerns we found at our inspection should have been identified through a robust system of checks.

We found two breaches of regulations in relation to medicines, safe care and treatment and good governance. We are considering the appropriate regulatory response to our findings.