We carried out a review of the data available to us about 247 Community Support 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 247 Community Support, you can give feedback on this service.
247 Community Support Limited provides personal care to people. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 11 people with 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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Right Support:
Records relating to 'as and when' required medicines and staff recruitment identity checks required improvement.
We made a recommendation about this.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff assisted them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff followed infection prevention and control good practice guidance.
Right Care:
Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service had enough appropriately skilled and trained staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Where people had support, this was flexible, available when they needed it and to the level they needed. Care and support was provided in a person-centred way and records reflected outcomes for people. People said staff treated them with care and kindness and supported them to take part in their individually preferred activities and to follow their own lifestyles.
Right Culture:
The culture at the service was positive. People and staff said they were listened to. The service was open to new ways of working and ongoing developments were introduced to promote independence and continuous improvement. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff told us they were supported by a strong management team.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 10 January 2019).
Why we inspected
This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe and well-led. For This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for 247 Community Support Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
The service was last inspected in June 2016. At our last inspection we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and autism who live in their own home or supported living. Not everyone using 247 Community Support receives regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection eight people were receiving personal care from the service.
There was a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was registered at this location in 2015.
People and their relatives said staff at the service kept people safe. Medicines were managed safely. Risks to people were assessed and steps taken to reduce them. Plans were in place to support people in emergency situations. The provider had policies and procedures in place to promote effective infection control measures. People were safeguarded from abuse. The provider and registered manager monitored staffing levels to ensure enough staff were deployed to provide safe support. The provider’s recruitment processes minimised the risk of unsuitable staff being employed.
People's health and social needs were assessed before they started using the service to ensure the correct support was made available to them. Staff worked closely with a range of external healthcare professionals to maintain and promote people’s health and wellbeing. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff were supported with regular training, supervision and appraisal. People received support to manage their food and nutrition.
People and relatives spoke positively about the staff at the service. Staff were very knowledgeable about people’s families, backgrounds, hobbies and interests and this led to interesting and fulfilling conversations that people clearly enjoyed. Staff worked to promote people’s independence and enable them to live as full and free a life as possible. Policies and procedures were in place to support people to access advocacy services.
People received person-centred support based on their assessed support needs and preferences. Staff were knowledgeable about people’s communication support needs. People were supported to source, organise and participate in a wide range of activities they enjoyed. Policies and procedures were in place to investigate and respond to complaints.
The registered manager had informed CQC of significant events in a timely way by submitting the required notifications. People, relatives and staff spoke positively about the culture and values of the service, and about the leadership provided by the registered manager. The provider and registered manager carried out a range of quality assurance checks to monitor and improve standards at the service. Feedback was sought from people, relatives and staff. The service had links with a wide range of community agencies and organisation that benefited people receiving support.
24 - 7 Community Support is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to young people and people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and autism who live in their own home or supported living. The service covers the Darlington area and at the time of our inspection the service supported 29 people.
The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are registered persons. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
We spoke with members of the staff team including a board director, and care staff who told us that the registered manager was always available and approachable. We spoke with people who used the service on the day of the inspection and their relatives.
We saw that peoples prescribed medicines and topical medicines were recorded when administered. We looked at how records were kept and spoke with the registered manager and director about how staff were trained to administer medicines and we found that the medicines administering, recording and auditing process was safe.
From looking at people’s support plans we saw they were person centred. ‘Person-centred’ is about ensuring the person is at the centre of everything and their individual wishes and needs and choices are taken into account. The support plans made good use of personal history and described individuals care, treatment, wellbeing and support needs. These were regularly reviewed and updated by the care co-ordinators and the registered manager.
People who use the service received person centred support and their cultural beliefs were respected and valued.
Individual support plans contained risk assessments. These identified risks and described the measures and interventions to be taken to ensure people were protected from the risk of harm. The care records we viewed also showed us that people’s health was monitored and referrals were made to other health care professionals where necessary for example: their GP, mental health team and care manager.
Our conversations with people who use the service and their relatives during the inspection showed us that people who used the service were supported in their own homes by sufficient numbers of staff to meet their individual needs and wishes.
We looked at the recruitment process and found that relevant checks on staff took place and this process was safe. People who used the service chose their own staff and together with their families were a major part of the recruitment process.
We looked at the staff training records we could see staff members were supported and able to maintain and develop their skills through training and development opportunities. Staff we spoke with confirmed they attended a range of learning opportunities. They told us they had regular supervisions with the registered manager, where they had the opportunity to discuss their care practice and identify further training needs.
People were supported with one to one support to empower them and enable them to maintain paid employment opportunities.
People were encouraged to plan and participate in activities that were personalised and meaningful to them. People were supported regularly to play an active role in their local community, which supported and empowered their independence including; holding regular coffee mornings, accessing local facilities and supporting people to access public transport independently.
We saw compliments and complaints procedure was in place and this provided information on the action to take if someone wished to make a complaint and what they should expect to happen next. People also had access to advocacy services and safeguarding contact details if they needed it.
We found the service had been regularly reviewed through a range of internal and external audits. We saw action had been taken to improve the service or put right any issues found. We found people who used the service and their representatives were regularly asked for their views via phone calls and surveys.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The Act requires that as far as possible people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible.
People can only be deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment when this is in their best interests and legally authorised under the MCA. Any applications must be made to the Court of Protection. At the time of this inspection no applications had been made to the Court of Protection.