Archived: Choice Support Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes

Choice Support Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes is a supported living service. The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provider the regulated activity 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. At the time of this inspection 90 people were receiving personal care within the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes supported living services.

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

People received safe care and were protected against avoidable harm, neglect and discrimination. Risks to people’s safety were assessed and strategies were put in place to reduce the risks.

People received support from staff who appropriately recruited. They were supported by regular, consistent staff who knew about them and their care needs.

Systems were in place to manage medicines and support people to self -administer their medicines. Systems were in place to control and prevent the spread of infection. The provider investigated incidents to ensure lessons were learnt when things went wrong, to continually improve the service people received.

People’s needs, and choices were assessed before they received a care package. Staff received induction and ongoing training that enabled them to have the skills and knowledge to provide effective care.

People were supported to eat and drink enough to maintain their health and well-being. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and access healthcare services. People were supported to attend healthcare appointments as and when required. Staff worked with other healthcare professionals to provide consistent care and 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.

Staff had built up caring and compassionate relationships with the people they provided care to. People and relatives, where appropriate, were involved in the planning of people’s care and support. People's privacy and dignity was maintained.

Support plans provided personalised care. There was a complaints procedure in place and systems to deal with complaints effectively. The service provided appropriate end of life care to people when required.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and actions were taken, and improvements were made when required. The service worked in partnership with outside agencies. People, relatives and staff were encouraged to provide feedback, which was analysed and acted upon.

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

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published 20 December 2018). Since this rating was awarded the registered provider of the service has changed. We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

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.