About the service Community Living Ltd provides a supported living service for up to eight people living with mental health needs and learning disabilities and/or autism. 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 our inspection two people were receiving support with their personal care. One person was living in a multiple occupancy home. The other person had their own self-contained flat.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were protected from the risk of abuse and relatives told us they felt their family members were safe at the service. Risk management plans identified the types of risks to people’s safety at the service and in the community, and how to support people and others to mitigate those risks and remain safe. Staff had learnt from incidents and used them to further improve their knowledge of the people they were supporting. This included why the incident occurred and to identify if it was related to a person’s frustration or having difficulties communicating their needs and wishes. The frequency and intensity of incidents had decreased since people moved into the service. People received their medicines as prescribed.
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. The staff put people receiving support at the centre of the service and a personalised service was provided that met people’s individual needs. Staff empowered people to make their own decisions and be in control of their lives as much as possible. The staff were working with people to help them achieve their goals and good outcomes.
People were treated well and staff were respectful in how they interacted, spoke with and talked about people. Staff were aware of people’s cultural backgrounds and any religious preferences. They provided support that respected people’s preferences and provided support which identified and promoted people’s heritage. People’s privacy and dignity was promoted and respected. As people were developing their daily living skills and their independence, staff were able to give people more space and privacy.
Staff were supporting people to develop their daily living skills and to become more independent with their personal care needs. Staff were also working with people to recognise and manage their emotions. Staff were aware of how people communicated and supported them to communicate, this included the use of non-verbal communication. Staff had supported people to integrate into the community.
Safe recruitment practices were in place and people were supported by experienced staff that were of good character. There were sufficient numbers of staff to provide people with the level of support they required. Staff rotas clearly identified which staff were allocated to support particular individuals at the service to ensure they received the level of support they required. Competency assessments were undertaken to ensure staff retained information they learnt during training and had the skills to undertake their role safely.
Governance systems were in place to review the quality and safety of the service and the support people received. However, we found that some of these processes needed formalising. This included particular audits and feedback mechanisms. The staff worked in partnership with people’s healthcare teams to ensure they received the level of support they required. The team were highly motivated and dedicated to providing high quality care. The provider took on board advice from healthcare professionals in order to improve practices.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
This service was registered with us on 15 November 2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the length of time since the service registered with the CQC.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service.