MacIntyre Milton Keynes Support

MacIntyre Milton Keynes Support is a supported living and domiciliary care service. The service provides the regulated activity Personal Care to people with a learning disability and / or autistic people living in supported living settings. At the time of our inspection 5 people were using the service.

People’s experience of the 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 assessment and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

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.

People were fully involved in managing personal risks and in taking decisions about how to keep safe. Staff were skilled in recognising signs when people experienced emotional distress and knew how to support people to keep them safe.

Right Care

People’s care was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights.

People had full access to healthcare services.

Right Culture

The provider promoted a culture of inclusion, diversity and equality. People were supported to express their individuality.

The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of managers and support staff ensured people using services lead inclusive and empowered lives. Staff placed people at the heart of everything they did.

People were supported to try new experiences, develop new skills, gain confidence and independence.

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 at the previous premises was Good (published 26 September 2017).

Why we inspected

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

This was a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for MacIntyre Milton Keynes Support 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.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People had support plans that were personalised to their individual needs and wishes. Records contained detailed information to assist staff to provide care and support in a manner that respected people’s individuality and promoted treating people with dignity.

Care records contained risk assessments to protect people from identified risks and helped to keep them safe. They gave information for staff on the identified risk and informed staff on the measures to take to minimise any risks.

People were actively involved in decisions about their care and support needs. There were formal systems in place to assess people’s capacity for decision making under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were safe with the staff that supported them in their own home. Staff understood the need to protect people from harm and knew what action they should take if they had any concerns.

Staffing levels ensured that people received the support they required safely and at the times they needed. The recruitment practice protected people from being cared for by staff that were unsuitable to work in their home.

People received care and support from staff that were kind and empathetic to their individual needs. They encouraged and promoted people’s independence and supported them to live fulfilled lives. Staff had the skills and knowledge to provide the care and support people needed and were supported by a management team which was receptive to ideas and committed to providing a high standard of care and support.

People were supported to take their medicines as prescribed. Records showed that medicines were obtained, stored, administered and disposed of safely. People were supported to maintain good health and had access to healthcare services when needed.

Staff had developed good relationships with the people they provided care to. People and their families were confident that issues would be addressed and that any concerns they had would be listened to. Complaints were appropriately investigated and action was taken to make improvements to the service when this was found to be necessary.

The registered manager led a management team which was approachable and supportive. There were thorough systems in place to monitor the quality of the service provided and action was taken to drive continuous improvement.