- Homecare service
Cera - Derbyshire
Assessment report published 10 March 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 12 February 2026 to 25 February 2026.
Cera-Derbyshire is a homecare service which provides personal care for people with a learning disability, autistic people, and adults of all ages who may have dementia, sensory impairments, or physical disability. Nursing care was not provided to people by this service.
We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
The service had been rated as ‘Good’ at their previous inspection (report published on 20 November 2018), and we carried out this inspection because it was an aged rating. 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 service.
We gave the provider 24 hours’ notice of our inspection. This was because we needed to ensure the registered manager would be available to meet with the inspector at the provider’s office. We also received feedback from 11 of the provider’s care staff.
At the time of this inspection, 67 people received support from this provider. However, only 43 people received the regulated activity of personal care. We therefore only reviewed the specific care provided to those 43 people, but we did inspect the general staffing, and management arrangements in place.
The provider had a learning culture and people could raise concerns. Managers investigated incidents thoroughly. Staff understood and managed risks well when they visited people. There were enough staff with the right skills, knowledge, and experience to meet people’s needs. Staff had received relevant training. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities. Staff managed people’s prescribed medicines well.
People were involved in deciding how they individually received care. People’s person-centred care plans and risk assessments took account of their individual communication needs as well as their personal care and health care needs. Staff monitored people’s health, where required, to encourage healthy living. Staff made sure people understood their care and treatment to enable them to give informed consent. 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 with kindness and compassion. Staff treated people as individuals and protected their privacy and dignity.
The registered manager was working to create a shared vision and culture based on listening, learning, and trust. The registered manager was knowledgeable, they treated staff fairly and respected their wellbeing. The registered manager collaborated with the community healthcare teams to ensure people received consistent and effective healthcare support. There was a culture of continuous improvement and of learning lessons from incidents to help reduce re-occurrences.
People's experience of this service
During our inspection we spoke with 2 people, and 3 people’s relatives, to get their feedback on the care provided. We also received feedback, by email, from one person’s relative.
Some people’s relatives told us they wanted the provider to ensure people’s preferences were followed when allocating staff of different sexes to support them with personal care tasks. For example, some people preferred female staff only to assist them with showering etc, whereas other people did not have a particular staff preference. The registered manager told us they would review their staffing rotas to ensure people’s preferences were accommodated as far as possible. They also told us they would take people’s preferences into account when assessing whether Cera-Derbyshire could provide support to people enquiring about receiving a care service from them.
People we spoke with told us they were happy with the care they received from the provider’s staff, who were kind and friendly towards them. People told us the staff and managers were well trained and able to support them with the personal care they needed. For example, a person’s relative told us, “We are very happy with the care provided.”