Riverside Point

Riverside Point is a residential home owned and managed by Bright Futures Care. It is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to eight people with physical and learning disabilities. The accommodation comprises of four linked three-story terraced properties each house providing living accommodation for two people. It is located close to local amenities in the community. At the time of the inspection eight people were living at the service.

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

The service applied the principles and values of Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These ensure that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes that include control, choice and independence.

The outcomes for people promoted choice and control, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

People who used the service and their relatives spoke of the outstanding care delivery. They told us the provider and staff of the service went above and beyond to ensure they received a person-centred service.

The service was exceptional in placing people at the heart of the service and its values. It had a strong person-centred ethos. Staff and managers told us how important the services' shared values were to them. They were passionate about providing outstanding individualised care to people.

Professional feedback was extremely positive about the service and the results they had achieved regarding the outcomes to people's quality of life. The service provided individualised care and support in accordance with best-practice. People’s quality of life had improved significantly. People developed in their self-confidence, independence and their self-esteem.

The provider and staff had an excellent understanding of managing risks and supported people to achieve their aspirations and full potential. The provider constantly adapted their support to promote each person's skills. This included supporting people to transition into moving to their own property, attending college and gaining employment.

The service had developed creative ways of ensuring people led fulfilling lives and were supported with choices with their lifestyle. 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.

The manager, provider and staff promoted an open, positive culture with a focus on exceptionally high-quality, person-centred care. The manager and provider made effective use of audits and other sources of information to continually reflect, review and improve practice. The provider funded additional support to their specialist staff teams. This included external services and specific training for staff to help them provide positive influences and outcomes to the people living at Riverside Point.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was outstanding. (published in June 2017.)

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

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

This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered with The Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2015.

Riverside Point is a residential home owned and managed by Bright Futures Care, which provides support for young people and adults with autism and learning difficulties. The accommodation comprises of four linked three story terraced properties each providing spacious living accommodation for two people. It is located in an area which offers privacy, but people also have easy access to local amenities in the community, such as shops, parks and libraries.

Bright Futures as an organisation provides various services to people with a learning disability including educational and residential services. The aim of the service is to provide people with a positive opportunity to learn and develop the skills necessary to become more independent whilst receiving care and support in a safe environment

Each person has their own bedroom with en-suite facilities and they are encouraged to decorate and develop their room as they wish. Riverside Point has secure gardens to provide sensory stimulation for individual residents.

At the time of the inspection eight people were living in the home.

The service has a registered manager. 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 lived in a safe and comfortable environment. They were able to take risks and were supported to make decisions which reflected their preferences and individual needs. The staff worked in an extremely person centred way, by responding to the person's individual communication needs to make sure the care and support they were provided with was right for each person. This included the way in which they responded to risks, making sure people felt safe and had the support they needed in any given situation. This meant that each person had a bespoke service which was developed with them and changed to reflect the changes taking place in their lives, confidence and abilities. This was confirmed by the relatives and professionals we spoke with, who felt the person centred approach was a particularly positive feature of the service.

People who used the service and their relatives spoke of the outstanding care delivery. They told us the provider and staff of the service went above and beyond to ensure they received a person centred service. Staff maintained people’s privacy and dignity ensuring any care or discussions about people’s care were carried out in private. We saw interactions both verbal and non-verbal between staff and people who used the service were caring and respectful with staff showing patience, kindness and compassion. We observed staff knew and understood the people they cared for and ensured people were provided with choices in all aspects of daily life by way of discussion.

Each person had a plan of social, leisure and educational activities which were tailor made for them and considered how they wanted to live their lives as well as their emotional and health needs. The staff worked very closely with a team of healthcare consultants to make sure support was planned in an appropriate and individualised way. This meant that all the decisions about people's care and support were well thought out and included the perspectives of different professionals. They had regular and comprehensive discussions to review each person's support plans to make sure they always considered their holistic needs. They monitored how people reacted and felt about each situation they were exposed to so that care could be adjusted to ensure it met the person's need. People were involved in planning their own care and making decisions. For people who could not express how they felt verbally, the staff made sure they had opportunities to express themselves in the way they could and that this was understood and acted upon. We saw ‘base sheets’ were used as a way of feedback about people’s perception of what had gone right and what had gone wrong with their day.

The registered manager involved families and other agencies to ensure people received the support they needed to express their views and make decisions that were in their best interests.

Staff were recruited through a rigorous procedure. As part of the recruitment process the provider used value based recruitment techniques, a clearly defined culture statement and staff competency assessments. Staffing provision was responsive to people’s changing needs and preferences which enabled people to lead fulfilled lives.

Staff were provided with opportunities to develop their skills and career. Individual staff abilities and interests were valued and incorporated into the way the service worked. All of the staff were able to contribute their ideas at all levels of the organisation from planning individual people's care to being part of developing new ways of working and procedures. The staff gave extremely positive feedback about working for the provider and felt empowered and appreciated in their role.

Training records were up to date and staff received regular supervisions and appraisals.

People who used the service, family members and external agencies were most complimentary about the standard of support provided. The registered manager involved families and other agencies to ensure people received the support they needed to express their views and make decisions that were in their best interests. Relatives and professionals were very positive about the service people received. Comments from relatives included “exceptional”, “amazing” “it’s a godsend” and “outstanding care provider”. Health and social care professionals without exception were high in their praise of the service. Comments included “they were a breath of fresh air, definitely need more like them”, “ They are creative to ensure they are able to meet young people’s needs in a way that works with the individual. In respect of my involvement I have always found the staff to be helpful, approachable, dedicated and committed to helping wherever they can” and “Could not ask for a better service. Total commitment to person centred care”.

The registered manager and staff had an excellent understanding of managing risks and supported people that had previously challenged services to reach their full potential.

An outstanding characteristic for the service was the time spent developing ways to accommodate the changing needs of the people who used the service, using innovative and flexible ways to support people to move forward. The registered provider was seen to constantly adapt and strive to ensure people who used the service were able to achieve their full potential. We saw that over a period of time people had been supported to progress and their support plans and environment adapted and developed to promote their independence. This included people moving to their own property, attending college and gaining employment.

People were at the heart of the service, which was organised to suit their individual needs and aspirations.

We saw people had assessments of their needs and care was planned and delivered in a person-centred way. The service had creative ways of ensuring people led fulfilling lives and they were supported to make choices and have control of their lives. Care plans had been developed to provide guidance for staff to support in the positive management of behaviours challenged the service and others. This was based on least restrictive best practice guidance to support people’s safety. The guidance supported staff to provide a consistent approach to situations that may be presented, which protected people’s dignity and rights.

.People participated in a range of personal development programmes. Individual programmes were designed to provide both familiar and new experiences for people and the opportunity to develop new skills. The creation of a Youth Inclusion Worker post to work with people who used the service in sourcing community activities at their request has been most successful.

People’s nutritional needs were well met and they had access to a range of professionals in the community for advice, treatment and support. Staff monitored people’s health and wellbeing and responded quickly to any concerns.

People received their medicines as prescribed by their GP. Medicines were managed safely to ensure people received them in accordance with their health needs and the prescriber’s instructions.

The service had a complaints policy; details of which were provided to all the people who used the service and their relatives. People told us they had no reason to complain but if they did ‘they knew what to do’.

The systems for monitoring and improving the service were an intrinsic part of the way the service worked. The staff continually monitored individual care, feedback from people using the service and information about them was used to reflect on and improve practice. Records were well thought out, clear and organised. The way in which records were used was seen by all the staff as an important part of quality assurance. Whilst the records were extremely detailed, time spent creating and updating these did not detract from the care provided to each person.

The culture of the service was open, transparent and progressive. All the staff were committed to continuous improvement of the service, individual care and looking at the provider as a whole. People using the service, their representatives and the staff felt valued and important representatives of the organisation. The staff regularly consulted relatives and external professionals to ask for their