We carried out a review of the data available to us about Sunderland Supported Living Service on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Sunderland Supported Living Service, you can give feedback on this service.
Sunderland Supported Living Service provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 177 people using the service in 66 supported living services.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Staff and managers provided excellent care to people who they placed at the heart of the service. Staff spent time learning about people and provided them with a range of opportunities so they could gain in confidence and take pride in their new skills. People expressed joy living where they lived and being supported to pursue the lives they wanted to live. Relatives spoke extremely highly about staff and provided many examples of how people had settled well into their new homes with the support of the very caring staff.
People were protected from abuse by staff who had been trained in safeguarding and were confident to speak up about their concerns. Staff underwent a robust recruitment process to ensure they were suitable to work with people. People’s medicines were administered in a safe manner. Any personal risks to people were well managed.
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 understood people’s nutritional needs and sought advice from professionals when people’s health care needs changed.
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:
• Systems were in place which ensured people had a voice in describing the type of support they wanted.
Right care:
• The care provided was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. Staff listened to people and treated each person as an individual.
Right culture:
• The managers and staff consistently spoke about the values and attitudes they held about the services. People and their relatives provided a significant number of examples which showed people were empowered to achieve increasingly independent lives.
Care plans were person centred and provided staff with detailed information on how to support people in line with their preferences. Staff were responsive to changes in people's needs and provided good support to people who were nearing the end of their life. Staff used various communication methods to involve people in making choices.
There were systems in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality of care being provided. Managers and staff had a commitment to continuous improvement. The registered managers worked closely with other services in quality improvement forums. There was clear evidence of staff working in partnership with other agencies. Professionals confirmed they had positive relationships with the registered managers and the staff teams.
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 19 March 2020 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
The service had not been inspected since it was first registered and was prompted in part by the number of medicine errors. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. The provider had taken action to mitigate the risk.
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.