We carried out a themed inspection looking at domiciliary care services. We asked people to tell us what it was like to receive services from this home care agency. This was part of a targeted inspection programme of domiciliary care agencies. We used telephone interviews to speak with five people who used the service and to their main carers, (relatives or friends). We visited two people in their homes and we spoke with two people visiting the agency's office to gain their views about the service. We also spoke with six members of staff. People that we spoke with were complimentary about the service and satisfied with the care and support they received from the agency. They made comments such as, 'I am the boss and the staff work for me.' Care and support was well coordinated and with evidence of people's agreement and involvement in the planning of their care and support.
Staff were trained in safeguarding people from harm. They had access to policies and information about how to correctly report any concerns to the local authority safeguarding team.
There was regular staff supervision and ongoing training sessions in place to ensure that staff could safely deliver care and support to people.
The agency had an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of the service that was provided to people. The manager told us they would be developing the system to include the views of relatives, other professionals and staff in forthcoming surveys.