Your Life (Ipswich) is a domiciliary care agency, delivering services to people living in a McCarthy and Stone assisted living scheme called Booth Court. The agency offers personal care services and was providing support to seven people who live in the scheme.

The inspection took place on 03 and 11 November 2016 and was announced.

The service has a new manager who had been appointed since the last inspection. The manager had applied to be registered and their application was in the process of being assessed. 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.

At our previous inspection in May 2015 we identified a breach of regulation as we found that the provider’s recruitment and selection procedures for recruiting staff were not sufficiently robust and did not always protect people.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and criminal records checks were in place prior to staff before they started to work at the service. However we identified another shortfall but the manager took immediate action to rectify this and ensure that the member of staff was checked as suitable to work in the service.

We also found that that the safeguards in place to protect people from financial abuse and medicine errors were not sufficient and did not keep people safe. For example audits were not undertaken on the financial transaction records which were maintained when staff undertook shopping on people’s behalf. Medicines were also not consistently well managed, staff were not always following best practice and the audits did not identify this. In response to our identified shortfalls, changes were subsequently made by the manager to the procedures and audits to reduce the future likelihood of error.

People told us that they were happy with the care they received and there were enough staff to meet their needs. There were clear arrangements for out of hours support to ensure that emergencies were dealt with promptly and people kept safe. People told us that the service was accommodating and flexible which gave them reassurance that their needs would be met if they increased.

Staff received induction and training for their role. A review of the quality of the training was underway in response to the feedback received from staff. Observations of practice were undertaken and there were clear systems in place to support staff. People were supported with meals and staff at the service worked with health professionals to support people with their health care needs.

People were involved in making decisions about their care and support. Their care plans had been tailored to them as an individual and outlined their care needs and how they wanted their care delivered. People’s independence was promoted by staff and people felt involved in their care.

People had good relationships with the staff and were treated with dignity and respect. They knew how to make a complaint and were confident that concerns would be addressed.

The manager was aware of their responsibilities and was supported by a management team. There were a range of systems in place to check on the quality of the care and to drive improvement.

The inspection took place on 22 May 2015 and was announced.

Your Life (Ipswich) is a domiciliary care agency, delivering services to people living in two McCarthy and Stone assisted living schemes. The service is based in Booth Court one of the schemes and offers personal care services. The agency was providing support to nine individuals.

The service has 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 were happy with the care they received however we found that recruitment procedures were not working effectively and did always protect people.

Staff were knowledgeable about the signs of abuse, but the mechanisms for reporting outside the organisation were not clear for staff Risks were well managed and there were clear procedures in place for staff to follow in the event of an emergency.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and staff were accommodating and flexible. This gave people reassurance that their needs would be met if they increased.

There were clear procedures in place for the administration of medicines and new audits were being developed to build on the training which had been undertaken.

Staff received induction and training for their role. Observations of practice were undertaken and there were clear systems in place to support staff. People were supported with meals and staff at the service worked with health professionals to support people with their health care needs.

People were involved in making decisions about their care and support. Their care plans had been tailored to them as an individual and outlined their ability to make decisions. People’s independence was promoted by staff and people felt involved in their care.

People had good relationships with the staff and were treated with dignity and respect. They knew how to make a complaint and were confident that concerns would be addressed.

The service had clear aims and values and staff understood their role in promoting good quality care. They were supported by a manager was visible and accessible. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service but these were not well developed and reflected the size of the service.

We identified a breach of regulations during this inspection, and you can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.