As part of our inspection we attempted to contact 20 people using the service or their relatives. We spoke with thirteen people by telephone and visited three people in their home's to discuss the service the agency had provided. The people we spoke with said they were happy with the care and support provided and felt it was delivered in a safe way. One person told us, 'They (care workers) are marvellous, nothing is too much trouble.'
Each person had a care file which identified their needs as well as their preferences and any risks associated with their care. People told us they had been involved in planning their care and felt staff respected their opinions and decisions.
There were effective systems in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection. This included staff receiving training in this subject and the provision of protective clothing.
Checks had been carried out on staff before they started to work at the agency to make sure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people. However we found the provider had not always followed their recruitment policy when obtaining references for new staff.
The provider had a system in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received. People told us they knew how to raise concerns and said they felt these would be acted on.