- Homecare service
Candlelight Homecare Service Limited (East Sussex)
Assessment report published 27 May 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 13 April to 5 May 2026. Candlelight Homecare Service Limited (East Sussex) is a domiciliary homecare service providing personal and social care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where staff do support people with personal care, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of this assessment the service was supporting 64 people, 50 of whom received the regulated activity of personal care in their own homes. At the time of the assessment, care and support was given to older people with physical care needs, autistic people and people with a learning disability.
We found improvements were needed in some aspects of the service. People’s care plans and risk assessments did not always reflect their assessed needs. Staff knew people well and understood the care and support required. This helped to mitigate risks related to the lack of information in care plans.
We were also made aware of concerns related to the day to day running of the service. During 2025 the provider had purchased another company which was to be run from Candlelight Homecare Service Limited (East Sussex). Both people and staff from the purchased company were transferred into Candlelight Homecare Service Limited (East Sussex). This transfer had not been successful for people or staff and concerns were raised by both people, their relatives, and staff. The management team and staff told us that changes had been made and concerns were being resolved. People were supported by a consistent team of staff at times of their choice. There had been some impact to this due to the recent purchase of the new service. However, feedback from people, staff, and evidence from records demonstrated this was improving.
People were protected from the risk of abuse, harm or discrimination. Improvements were needed to aspects of record keeping in relation to managing medicines safely. There were enough staff who had been safely recruited and received ongoing training and support. People were supported to maintain good health. Staff were proactive in ensuring people’s needs were responded to and met in a timely way.
We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed autistic people and people with a learning disability respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence, and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. We found autistic people and people with a learning disability received support from a small staff team who knew them well and had received extra training to provide the appropriate support.
The registered manager had a good oversight of the service. They were responsive to feedback committed to learning, improving, and developing the service for the benefit of the people who lived there. They acknowledged further time was required to fully embed improvements into the service.
People's experience of this service
We received mixed feedback from people and their relatives. Where people were less satisfied with the service this generally appeared related to the purchase of the second service and how this had impacted on the way the support was provided. Some people told us there had been changes to their staffing team and this had been an issue for them. One person explained further about how the changes had affected them. They said, “What we have now works OK but there is a lack of consistency.” People and their relatives spoke with us about timekeeping. Comments included, “Time keeping isn’t brilliant, the time varies as does the time they stay.” And “Time keeping is pretty good and we have a core group of carers, it all seems to work well.”
People and their relatives were positive about the staff and support they provided. Comments included, “I do feel [name] is very safe with them, he is well looked after and cared for by them.” “The carers have been very obliging and time keeping has been mostly alright.” And “I couldn’t wish for nicer people.”
People and their relatives told us they were able to contact the office and were able to raise any concerns or complaints. One person said, “I’ve not needed to contact the office, but I know I can.”