Archived: Leaf Complex Care Exeter

Leaf Complex Care Exeter is a domiciliary care service. It is registered to provide personal care to

people living in their own homes in the community. The service specialises in providing bespoke, long term complex care packages to support younger people with needs such as learning disability and autism. The service operates wherever people need support in Devon. At the time of our inspection, three people were receiving a 24 hour personal care service.

People's experience of using this service:

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.

Right care:

• Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human rights

Right culture:

• Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives

Staff understood people's individual care needs and preferences and used this knowledge to provide them with flexible, responsive support. This enabled people to live the life they chose. The provider took care to involve people and their relatives in planning and reviewing their care and to deploy staffing resources in accordance with their individual preferences.

Staff worked together in a mutually supportive way and communicated effectively, internally with each other and externally with a range of organisations. This included working in the same office as the Learning Disability Network. Training and supervision systems were in place to provide staff with the knowledge and skills they required to meet people's needs effectively.

Staff were kind and attentive in their approach and were committed to supporting people to maintain their independence. Staff worked in a non-discriminatory way and promoted people's dignity and privacy.

Staff worked collaboratively with local health and social care services to ensure people had access to any support they required.

Systems were in place to ensure effective infection prevention and control. People's medicines were managed safely in line with their individual needs and preferences.

People were provided with food and drink of their choice which met their nutritional requirements and promoted healthy eating.

Staff were aware of people's rights under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and supported people to have maximum choice and control of their lives, in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People's individual risk assessments were reviewed and updated to take account of changes in their needs. Staff knew how to recognise and report any concerns to keep people safe from harm. Staff recruitment practice was safe.

The registered manager provided open, person-led leadership and was respected and admired by her team. With their personal experience of the service user group, they were clearly passionate about ensuring people lived their best lives.

There was monitoring of the quality and safety of the service. A new Head of Quality and Compliance was working with the registered manager to devise tools to streamline and simplify auditing as the service grew. As a small new service the registered manager and provider were keen to learn. They worked with local commissioners and other organisations, sharing within the wider provider services. There had not been any concerns or complaints but there were policies in place and we saw good communication between the service and peoples’ families. The provider was committed to the continuous improvement of the service in the future.

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

Why we inspected:

The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission in January 2019. This was our first inspection of the service.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.