The Fallowfield Project

Updated 10 April 2020

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

This inspection was completed by one 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 across three ‘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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that staff would be in the office to support the inspection.

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. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection:

We spoke with 13 tenants about their experience of the care and support provided. We also spoke with registered manager, team leader, six support workers, the resident involvement lead and three senior managers.

We also used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We looked at multiple records and associated documentation related to the delivery of care and support, governance and safe systems of work.

After the inspection

We asked the registered manager to send us a range documents that supported our findings throughout the inspection visit.

Updated 10 April 2020

About the service

The Fallowfield Project offers 24 hour support to people within a home environment via individual supported tenancies. The service is registered to provide support for 20 people. 16 people used the service at the time of this inspection.

Support is provided to people aged 18 years and over who live with complex needs, including mental health support needs and/or a learning disability. Some people may be subject to certain formal or informal conditions under the Mental Health Act 1983. Accommodation and communal facilities are provided across three houses, all of which are situated within a two-minute walk of each other. One house is dedicated to supporting females only, another house is dedicated to males, with the other property being mixed male and female.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

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

People who used the service expressed a view they wished to be referred to as ‘tenants.’ Therefore, this phrase is used throughout this report.

The positive culture, ethos, vision and values of the service were strikingly apparent from the moment you walked into the service. Each and every member of staff we spoke with demonstrated a high values base and were clearly highly invested in ensuring the service was a caring and supportive environment for everyone.

A ‘whole service’ approach to equality, diversity and human rights had been well established into all aspects of service delivery. This included support tailored to people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, people of non-white heritage, people who practised faith and those of none.

Many tenants had spent significant periods of their lives in long-term institutional care, with regimented regimes and little personal choice. Staff took a forward thinking and dynamic approach to positive risk-taking which meant risks associated with participation in meaningful activities were not considered a barrier.

The philosophy of the service was to focus on the individual rather than a diagnosis or offending history, and to recognise and celebrate people’s unique values, personalities and personal histories. Everyone was considered an equal partner in their personal support journey. Tenants were supported to express their views in a way that was personalised to the individual.

Supporting people to engage in meaningful occupation and activities was a key stand-out feature of the service. Recent examples of positive outcomes included supporting individuals to move-on from the service and into independent living; helping people secure both paid and unpaid employment opportunities; and supporting people to achieve their educational goals.

The service benefited from a highly experienced and long-serving registered manager and team leader. They were exceptionally well supported by a workforce who knew people extremely well and worked flexibly to meet people’s individual needs.

Systems and processes for audit, quality assurance and questioning of practice were highly effective and well embedded into everyday practice. External health and social care professionals described leadership and management as ‘distinctive’ and ‘unique’ within the sector.

Providing a role for tenants to help evaluate the service from their expert perspectives was well embedded into every practice. There was a mechanism to support tenants in understanding what quality looked like and to increase participation.

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

Rating at last inspection

At the last inspection the service was rated good. (published 12 January 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect