- Homecare service
Handley Care Services Limited
Assessment report published 29 August 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of inspection 06 July 2026 to 24 July 2026.
Handley Care Services Limited is a supported living service supporting people with learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. The service uses a household model of care. People lived in small household groups that share a kitchen, lounge and dining area This helps create a familiar home environment where staff can support people in a more flexible and personal way.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks relating to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, 6 people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care.
This service was previously rated as good at their previous inspection (report published on 12 June 2019). The provider had recently added the ‘supported living’ service type to their CQC registration; however, the previous report referred to the exact same location. We carried out this inspection because the supported living part of the service had not yet been rated. This inspection was carried out 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. We gave the provider notice of our inspection. This was because we needed to ensure that people would be available to meet with the inspector.
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.
A learning culture was evident and people felt they could raise any concerns and they would be listened to. Staff understood and managed risks well. There were enough staff with the right skills, knowledge, and experience to meet people’s needs. Staff had received relevant training and understood their roles and responsibilities. Overall, staff managed people’s prescribed medicines well.
People and their families where appropriate, were involved in deciding how they received their care. People’s care plans and risk assessments were in place, and took account of people’s individual communication needs as well as their personal care and health care needs. Staff ensured an appropriate best interest decision making process was followed where people did not have the capacity to make decisions for themselves.
People were treated as individuals and staff protected their privacy and dignity. Staff explained how they involved people in their care and support to ensure this matched with their personal preferences and routines.
Governance systems were in place and up to date. Supervisions and team meetings had taken place. Communication with people who used the service, their relatives and staff was overall positive.
The registered manager was knowledgeable, treated staff fairly and respected their wellbeing. The provider had a whistle blowing policy and staff were able to raise concerns if they needed. Staff collaborated with community healthcare teams to ensure people received consistent and effective healthcare support.
People's experience of this service
During our inspection we spoke with 2 people in their home and 6 people’s relatives to get their feedback on the care provided. People's experiences of the service were positive with many relatives commenting how people always seemed comfortable with the staff and they were kept up to date with any changes. We saw how people were comfortable and relaxed in the presence of staff, and our observations confirmed staff treated people with kindness, compassion, patience and respect.
Relatives confirmed managers were approachable and they had been contacted to give feedback in relation to the care their relatives received. They confirmed they were kept updated, most confirmed that actions and activities following that feedback were reflected on and usually completed.
Overall, people and their relatives were very happy with the care provided and felt all of the staff were well trained, communicated well and understood their relatives’ individual needs and always contacted the appropriate healthcare professionals as and when required.