We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This announced inspection took place on 16 and 20 April 2018. We gave the provider two days’ notice as they provide support to people in their own homes, and we had to gain people’s permission to contact them. The inspection was undertaken by one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The expert by experience spoke with people on the telephone on the first day. The inspector visited the office location on the second day to speak with staff and review records.

We used information we held about the service and the provider to assist us to plan the inspection. This included notifications the provider had sent to us about significant events at the service. As part of our planning, we reviewed information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We spoke with seven people who used the service and the relatives of ten people. We also spoke with two support workers, two senior support workers, two co-ordinators, the registered manager, the area manager and HR manager. We looked at the care files of three people who used the service to see if their information was accurate and up to date. We reviewed two staff files to see how they were recruited and checked information about their training. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service. This included audits the registered manager had in place to ensure the quality of the service was continuously monitored and reviewed.