Arch Futures

Arch Domiciliary Care Services provides care at home and is a supported living service. People live in the community in single accommodation or with family. There are 12 supported living settings and staff provide onsite 24-hour care in the some of these supported living sites, and some people receive 24- hour care in the community. People receiving support are living with a learning disability, and or autism, mental health needs and some people have physical needs and complex health conditions. The service provides care and support for children, young people and adults.

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, 98 people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care.

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.

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

Right Support: People received care and support that enabled them to have choice and control of their care. People’s independence was promoted. 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 received care and support that was personalised and provided by an individual staff team who were well trained and supported. People were enabled to achieve positive outcomes and led an active and fulfilling life.

Right Culture: There was a shared commitment to the culture and values of the service. Feedback received from people who used the service, relatives, staff and external professionals about the leadership and management were consistently highly positive. The registered manager understood their role and responsibilities. They showed great commitment, flexibility and a positive can-do attitude, ensuring people remained at the center of their care and support. There were effective systems and processes in place to continually review, monitor and improve quality and safety.

People were supported to manage known risks effectively and safely. There was a multi-disciplinary approach to risk management. People were supported to maintain their tenancy, including monitoring environmental health and safety.

Staff were safely recruited and provided consistently and continuity in care. Staff received ongoing training that included areas of care and support, individual to the person.

Staff understood how to recognise where people may be at risk of harm or abuse and knew what action to take. People received support to take medicines and systems were in place to ensure this was completed safely and effectively.

Staff had received training in the management and best practice guidance of infection prevention and control.

People and their relative and or advocate, were supported and invited to share their experience about the service. The staff worked well with external agencies and health and social care professionals, in supporting people with their ongoing care and support needs.

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 31 August 2019).

Why we inspected

We were aware physical intervention was sometimes used and we wanted to be assured that best practice guidance was followed, and people were being safely supported. 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. The overall rating for this service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Arch Domiciliary Care Services 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.

Arch Domiciliary Care is a service providing care and support to young people and adults in their own homes within Leicester and Leicestershire. At the time of our inspection, there were 86 people receiving the regulated activity of personal care. 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.

People’s experience of using this service:

Supporting people to live their best life possible was at the heart of service. Passionate commitment to the ethos of support and empowerment was shared across all staff teams. The service was exceptional in supporting people and staff to build relationships and skills. This meant people were well cared for by knowledgeable staff, led and maintained healthier lives, and received consistent good care when they used other services. Staff were proactive with people’s health needs and alerted people to changes in their health whilst providing the required support. Staff support had empowered people to achieve positive outcomes in their lives.

The provider had systems in place to minimise the risks of abuse. They empowered people and their relatives to becomes partners in promoting the safety of people that used the service. Staff received support to provide safe care including emotional support when required. Only staff who were safe to work with people who use care services were employed. The provider ensured people’s medicines were managed safely.

People felt they mattered to the service and the staff that supported them. They were treated with great respect and staff demonstrated a compassionate interest in people. Staff enabled people to determine their own care by supporting them to express their choices and preferences. They also empowered people to be as independent as possible and to follow their interests.

People achieved positive outcomes in their social life. They were supported to be part of and engage with their local community. The provider organised events to support people who were at risk of social isolation. The care people received was tailored to their individual needs. People knew how to raise any concerns or complaints they may have and were confident that the provider would act on them.

There was a shared commitment to the culture and values of the service. The leadership and management of the service were highly praised by staff, other professionals, people who used the service and their relatives. The registered manager understood their role and maintained good oversight of the service. They had effective systems in place to monitor the delivery of a good standard of care and drive improvement for better outcomes for people.

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.

Rating at last inspection: The last rating for this service was Good (published 09 August 2016). Since this rating was awarded the service has moved premises. We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

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.