West Cornwall Support Services

Updated 7 July 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by an 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.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in 15 ‘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.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we intended to visit a number of settings and needed to gain consent before visiting.

Inspection activity started on 1 June and ended on 9 June 2023. We visited the service’s office and specific settings on 1 and 6 June 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we had received about the service since the last inspection as part of the planning process. 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.

During the inspection

We visited 5 settings and met with 10 people who the service supported, 13 staff and the registered manager. We also spoke by telephone with 10 people’s relatives.

We looked at records relating to people’s care and the management of the service. This included 4 care plans and associated risk assessments, medicine administration records (MARs) and staff recruitment and training records.

We also reviewed information about the management of the service and quality assurance audits. This information was reviewed in detail after the site visit. We also sought written feedback from 5 health and social care professionals.

Updated 7 July 2023

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.

About the service

West Cornwall Support Services is a supported living service which supports people with learning disabilities and autistic people. The service supports people living in 15 different settings in Cornwall. Some settings were houses in multiple occupation where people had their own bedrooms with shared cooking, lounge and bathroom facilities. The other settings consisted of flats and houses where each person’s accommodation was self-contained.

At the time of our inspection 44 people were being supported by the service, 21 of whom received support with 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

Right Support:

People were protected from abuse and staff understood how to report safeguarding concerns to the local authority. Risks had been identified and appropriately mitigated. Staff knew how to keep people safe while promoting independence.

Medicines were managed safely, and staff understood current infection control guidance.

The service supported people to become more independent and gain new skills. People had taken on responsibilities within their homes and were supported to access work placements.

The service appropriately supported people to raise concerns about their environment with housing providers.

Staff empowered people and respected their decisions. Staff were able to communicate effectively with people who were able to change their minds in relation to planned events.

Right Care:

People’s capacity to make decisions had been appropriately assessed. Where individuals lacked capacity and there were restrictions to their freedoms, these issues had been reported to the local authority for authorisation by the Court of Protection.

People’s care plans were accurate and informative. They provided staff with enough guidance to enable them to meet people’s individual needs. There were systems in place to ensure people’s needs and preferences were fully understood to enable successful transitions.

People got on well with their support staff and were confident requesting help when needed. Staff encouraged and supported people to become more independent and enabled people to engage with a variety of activities and interests. People were supported to maintain relationships important to them and to meet with friends and relatives regularly.

Right Culture:

Relatives were complimentary of the care and support people received and people were happy spending time with their staff.

Staff had been safely recruited and staffing levels were sufficient to meet people’s needs. Specific staffing challenges in 2 of the 15 setting meant agency staff were being regularly used. There was a recruitment programme underway and additional support had been given to the team in one setting to help address and resolve issues between members of the staff.

Quality assurance systems were effective. Staff told us they were well supported and able to access guidance and advice when needed.

The registered manager was appropriately supported by a team of managers whose individual roles and responsibilities were well understood by staff and relatives.

The service learned when things went wrong. Changes had been made to systems and procedures following incidents to prevent similar events reoccurring.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for the service was Good (published 9 January 2019). At this inspection the rating remained good.

Why we inspected

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

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

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