Archived: Barnardo's Disability and Inclusion Support Service

Barnardo's Disability and Inclusion Support Service provides a short breaks service for children, young people and their families. Children and young people who used the service have additional learning needs. At the time of our inspection they were providing support to 36 children and young people, 17 of whom required personal care.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. Children and young people using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

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

Feedback from children, young people and their relatives showed they had experienced significantly high standards of care. Each member of staff demonstrated that they were exceptionally caring. Everyone who used the service benefitted significantly. Staff were very sensitive to equality and diversity issues.

Children and Young people who attended the Young People’s Forum were very positive about the support they had received from the service. They found the service had a very positive impact on them.

Children, young people and their families found the service to be safe. Systems and processes were in place to ensure personal risks were well-managed. Staff had undergone a thorough recruitment process. They had a good understanding about safeguarding issues and how to ensure children and young people were protected from harm.

Children and young 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.

The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support by promoting choice and control, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

Staff were supported through regular supervision. Staff demonstrated that they were well trained and had the knowledge to care for each young person. They understood the use of care plans which were regularly reviewed and updated.

The service continued to be well-led by a registered manager who was responsive to any concerns and complaints. The service had a culture of continuous learning. Effective arrangements were in place to monitor the quality of the service and staff performance.

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 (Last report published 17 January 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit in line with our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

At this inspection we judged that the necessary improvements had been sustained and have changed our rating of the service.

Barnardo’s Disability and Inclusion Support Service provides short and longer term services which include provision of personal care to children and young people with disabilities and support to their families. At the time of our inspection services were being provided to 13 children under 18 years old.

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 found the care and support of the young people was well-planned to protect their personal safety and welfare. The service took steps to reduce risks and make sure that care was safely provided both in and outside of the home. Established processes were in place for preventing abuse and reporting any safeguarding concerns.

A thorough recruitment process was undertaken to ensure new staff were properly checked and vetted before they were employed. There was enough staffing capacity to deliver and co-ordinate the care services. Each person and their family had their own allocated sessional and project workers for continuity of care and communication.

The staff were supervised and given appropriate training to enable them to provide effective care. Staff worked closely with families and other professionals in supporting young people, where required, with their health needs. Suitable arrangements were made for managing medicines.

Wherever possible, services were provided flexibly to accommodate individual needs and requests. A proactive approach had been adopted in monitoring staff performance and obtaining feedback about people’s care experiences. There was a good level of satisfaction with the service and no complaints had been received.

Staff were given sufficient time and information to provide the support needed. Supportive relationships had been developed and we were told workers were caring and respectful. Care was taken to offer choices and promote the young people’s dignity and independent skills.

Care plans were personalised, agreed in consultation with the family and regularly reviewed. The service supported many of the young people to participate in social activities and access the community.

The management team provided leadership to staff and worked in partnership with the young people, their families, and other stakeholders. Structured methods to continuously assure and improve the quality of the service had been developed.

Staffing was properly organised and enabled the children/young people to have consistent care from their own dedicated workers. Support workers were skilled and trained to provide care in a safe way. But appropriate arrangements had not been made to make sure workers were trained and competent in handling medicines safely. We were given assurance that action was being taken to address this during our inspection.

There were systems for checking the quality of the service, including getting people's views of how the service could be improved. A clear procedure was also in place for making complaints, and any concerns were taken seriously and investigated.