St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA

Updated 18 March 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

One inspector and 1 Expert by Experience carried out this inspection. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in 3 ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there were 3 registered managers in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because some of the people using the service could not consent to a home visit from an inspector. This meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

Inspection activity started on 19 January 2023 and ended on 20 February 2023. We visited the location’s office on 30 January 2023 and 20 February 2023. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people who use the service and their relatives on 23 January 2023. We visited three supported living settings on 1 and 8 February 2023.

We spoke with 10 people who use the service and 7 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 16 staff members, including 2 registered managers, the provider's area manager, 2 deputy managers, 1 member of the provider’s quality team and 10 members of support staff.

We reviewed a range of records which included 3 support plans and 10 medicines records. We looked at other records relating to the management of the service including risk assessment processes and systems for monitoring quality.

Following the inspection, we received feedback from a further 3 staff members. We looked at a range of documents such as recruitment files and checks on agency staff.

Updated 18 March 2023

About the service

St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA provides personal care to people living in supported living services. This service primarily offers support to adults with learning disabilities or autistic people. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 17 people with personal care in 3 supported living settings in County Durham.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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.

Right support

Staff focused on people's strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful life. The service worked with people to plan for when they experienced periods of distress, so their freedoms were restricted only if there was no alternative. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. People told us staff supported them to do the things important to them, such as going on holiday, cooking and attending football matches.

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.

Right care

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people's privacy and dignity. Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. Staff understood and respected people's religious and cultural needs and supported them accordingly. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse.

People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs. Staff supported people to try new activities that enhanced and enriched their lives. Staff and people co-operated to assess risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Right culture

People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management team and staff. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing. Staff placed people's wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff valued and acted upon people's views. People's quality of life was enhanced by the service's culture of improvement and inclusivity.

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 this service was good (published 19 July 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last comprehensive inspection (report published 19 July 2018) to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA 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.