DCA Thornton Gate

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support: People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff enabled effective communication that met individual needs, and supported people to live independent and individual lives that met their preferences and aspirations. Staff supported relationships that were important to an individual, and staff support was available to meet interests and past times. Medicines were managed safely.

Right Care: Staff were kind and compassionate and had completed relevant training to enable them to maintain their skills. Staff knew individual care and support needs and delivered care to meet those needs. This included ensuring other professionals were involved in care and support decisions when this was required. Staff understood their obligation to prevent incidents of avoidable harm and poor care and abuse, and were aware of reporting procedures available to them if these were needed.

Right Culture: Staff supported an individual to live an inclusive lives and promoted their strengths and wishes. Staff were aware of individual human rights and sought to protect these. Staff had access and understood best practice guidance regarding the support of people with learning disabilities and sensory challenges. The management team and staff encouraged an open and transparent culture in which people were respected and valued. The provider had a formal and informal range of systems to monitor the quality of the service and drive improvements.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good published on 13 June 2018.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out as the service had not previously been inspected since the new provider had been responsible for providing the regulated activity.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection under the previous provider, by selecting the ‘All inspection reports and timeline’ link for RNID Action on Hearing Loss Thornton Gate on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.