Northamptonshire Domiciliary Care Agency

Updated 2 January 2026

Date of assessment: 23 June 2026 to 17 July 2026.

This was a fully comprehensive assessment carried out to check on improvements made by the provider since our last assessment in July 2025.

The service provides personal care for younger and older people with a learning disability. The Care Quality Commission [CQC] only inspects services where people receive personal care, this is help with tasks related to personal hygiene. At the time of our assessment, the service was supporting 28 people with personal care in a supported living home with their own tenancy agreement from a landlord.

There was a manager registered with CQC. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

We assessed the service against the ‘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.

We found that since our last assessment, there had been positive changes to the leadership, culture and oversight of the service, supported by increased involvement from local leaders. Staff consistently spoke positively about the direction of the service and described leaders as visible, approachable and responsive to feedback. Improvements had been made across the service, including to care plans, risk mitigation plans, staff training and the recording of people’s goals and outcomes.

We identified areas where governance and quality assurance systems had not consistently identified concerns, including aspects of restrictive practice, mental capacity assessments and other records. The provider had developed improvement plans and demonstrated a commitment to learning and continuous improvement. We found further work was required to ensure improvements were fully embedded and sustained across all homes.

We found the service was on a positive improvement journey and leaders had an understanding of the work required to continue improving outcomes for people. We were assured by the vision and improvement plans shared by the registered manager.

At our last assessment the service was rated inadequate and placed in special measures. At this assessment, we found improvements had been made and the service was no longer inadequate overall, in any key question, and was no longer required to be in special measures.

This service has been rated requires improvement overall. We identified an ongoing breach of regulation in relation to good governance. We have asked the provider to submit an action plan in response to the concerns identified during this assessment. We will check on the implementation of these plans at our next assessment.

Updated 2 January 2026

The principles of ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ were not always being met. For example, we had concerns in relation to the real tenancy test.

People using the service consistently told us they felt safe. Relatives expressed confidence in the care provided, with one relative telling us, “Yes, I think [relative] is safe,” and another saying, “They keep [relative] safe, yes.”

Feedback we received from people and their relatives demonstrated that people were treated with kindness, compassion and dignity. People told us, “It’s my home. I like it here. Staff are good to me.”

Relatives spoke positively about the quality of support provided and the relationships people had developed with staff. Comments included, “It suits [relative], I think [relative’s] happy there,” “[Relative’s] provision is absolutely excellent, staff are so kind to [relative] and very welcoming to me,” and, “[Relative] seems happy with staff, says [relative] likes them.” Another relative told us, “It’s [relative’s] home, [relative] loves it there, they’re like family.”

Our observations during the assessment reflected the feedback we received. Staff interacted with people in a warm, caring and compassionate manner and demonstrated a good understanding of people’s individual needs and preferences.

People were supported to make choices about their daily lives and take part in activities that were important to them.

For example, we saw evidence of people participating in a range of activities based on their interests and preferences, including attending cafés, eating out, shopping, bowling, going for walks and attending day services. Staff also involved people in everyday household tasks, such as cooking, shopping and housework.

During the assessment, we observed examples of people exercising choice and control over their daily lives. However, we remained concerned that some practices were not fully aligned with the principles of the real tenancy test meaning people may not afforded their full rights.