Bradford Regional Office

Bradford Regional Office is a supported living service registered to provide personal care for younger and older adults with learning disabilities, and/or autistic people, people with mental health needs, physical disability and sensory impairment in the Leeds and Bradford areas.

Not everyone who used the service received 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.

At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 7 people who required assistance with their personal care.

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

Right Support.

People told us they were happy with the care and support they received. People’s needs were assessed, and care plans were developed with the input of people and their relatives. Processes were in place to safeguard people from abuse. Risks to people’s safety were considered and people were supported to understand how they could keep themselves safe. 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.

Right Care

People were supported by staff that knew them well and who were committed to providing person centred care. People were supported to lead lifestyles of their choosing. People's communication needs were assessed, and people were supported to use various communication tools to assist in their engagement with others. People received good quality care, support and treatment because trained staff could meet their needs and wishes. People were supported to maintain good health, were supported with their medicines and access to healthcare services, when needed.

Right Culture.

Staff demonstrated their commitment to the values of the service that put people at the centre of the care and support provided. There was an inclusive culture. People felt consulted because the care team listened and responded to people's views. The management team worked together to oversee the care people received. Regular checks and audits were carried out to make sure the service was safe and best practice was promoted. The service had worked with community health and social care professionals to ensure people's needs were met.

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 this service was good (published 9 June 2018).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the management and governance of the service, the management of risk, care planning and positive behaviour support, medicines, record keeping. As a result, we undertook 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.

We found there was no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns, as the provider had addressed the identified shortfalls. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report. The overall rating for the service remains good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bradford Regional Office on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

The service supports people who have a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder, mental health needs or an eating disorder. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting seven people, including three people who required assistance with their personal care.

The inspection took place on 12 and 19 April 2018 with the provider being given short notice of the first visit to the office in line with our current methodology for inspecting community services. This was the first inspection since the location was registered in April 2017 and we rated it as ‘Good’.

The service had 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 [CQC] 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

All the people we spoke with told us they were very happy with the support staff provided, and how the service operated.

People were supported safely. There were systems in place to reduce the risk of abuse and to assess and monitor potential risks to individual people. Incidents and accidents were monitored and action was taken to reduce risks to people.

Medication was managed safely. Staff who administered medications had been trained to carry out this role appropriate.

Recruitment processes helped the employer make safer recruitment decisions when employing new staff. Staff had undertaken a range of training and support that aimed to meet people’s needs while developing staffs’ knowledge and skills.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People’s privacy was respected and they were treated with dignity, kindness and compassion.

People received a nutritious and balanced diet and their dietary needs and choices were met. They were supported to maintain relationships with people who were important to them and to participate in social activities within the community and at home.

People’s needs had been assessed before their care package started and where possible they or their relatives had been involved in formulating their support plans, which were person centred and gave clear guidance to staff on supporting each individual person. Staff worked closely with other social and healthcare professionals to ensure people received a service that met all their needs.

People we spoke with told us they knew how to raise any concerns and said they felt comfortable doing so. When concerns had been raised we saw the correct procedure had been used to record, investigate and resolve them.

People were consulted about their satisfaction in the service received and systems were in place to make sure company policies were followed. All the people we spoke with, including staff, told us they were very happy with the way the service was run. People spoke positively about the registered manager and how staff delivered care.

Further information is in the detailed findings below