Sackville Gardens

Updated 24 November 2021

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We also reviewed some support plans for people using the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We met and spent time with four people who used the service and met the staff supporting them. We spoke to four members of staff including the registered manager. We reviewed a range of people’s records which included medication records. We reviewed records relating to the management of the service.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and recruitment files. We spoke with four relatives about the service and five members of staff.

Updated 24 November 2021

About the service

Sackville Garden is a supported living service providing personal care and support for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. At the time of the inspection the service was providing support to five people at one site in Hove.

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

We found areas of outstanding practice in caring. Staff were exceptionally caring and valued what was important to people, ensuring that people were the entire focus of their own care. People were supported by staff to challenge discrimination and championed the importance of equality and diversity. Staff always worked in partnership with people and their families to ensure that people received the support they wanted. Staff were entirely focused on what people could achieve and how they could support people to reach important life goals. Staff consistently thought innovatively about how to support people to be as independent as possible.

We observed staff communicating and interacting with people. People were comfortable and confident around staff that were supporting them. Staff spent time finding out what was important to people and ensuring that all other staff knew how people wanted to be supported. Staff were passionate about supporting people in line with their individual preferences and unique abilities.

The service was well led by leaders who inspired their staff and ensured that people, staff and those important to people worked in partnership together. The culture of the service empowered people to make to their own decisions about how they wanted to spend their time and live their lives.

People were supported safely by staff, risks to people were assessed and well managed. Staff supported people to live full and busy lives. Infection control measures were in place to protect people. People’s medicines were managed safely.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support:

• Model of care and setting maximises people’s choice, control and independence. People were in charge of their own lives and care. Staff focused on supporting people to make their own decisions and people were supported to be involved in the running of the service.

Right care:

• Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. People were supported in exactly the way they chose and were treated as an individual by staff. Relatives were consistently positive about the impact the service had had on their loved ones. For one person who had been moved around several services in and out of the county, their family told us, “now [they’re] here I have no worries at all. [They’ve] finally found [their] home. It’s wonderful and I can’t knock it.”

Right culture:

• Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives. The registered manager and staff were passionate about supporting people to be as independent and live as least restrictive lives as possible. Staff regularly reviewed how they supported people to ensure that the support they provided promoted people’s independence as much as possible.

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

Why we inspected

This service was registered with us on 25 November 2019 and this is the first 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.