Updated 27 February 2024
DCA Alderwood is a domiciliary care agency and supported living service registered to provide personal care. For this assessment we looked only at the supported living part of the service. On the first day of the assessment there were five people receiving personal care and support. We carried out our site assessment on 20 May 2024 and finished the assessment on 14 June 2024. The assessment was carried out as the service was previously unrated and due to concerns that had been raised around care planning and the management of risk. All quality statements were looked at during the assessment. 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. We saw that improvements had been made at the service in recent months, since the new manager started. Training compliance was improving and assessments were being updated. However further improvements were still required around ensuring people were not overly restricted and that best practice around mental capacity assessments and best interests was being followed. Assessments needed to consider people’s goals and aspirations.