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Archived: Potensial North East Supported Living

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

96 Eastbourne Road, Darlington, County Durham, DL1 4ER 07910 453078

Provided and run by:
Potensial Limited

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

All Inspections

21 February 2018

During a routine inspection

The inspection took place on 21 and 22 February 2018. The inspection was announced. This is a small supported living scheme and we wanted to be sure that someone would be in when we inspected.

We last inspected Potential Supported living in November 2016, at which time it was rated good. At this inspection we rated the service as good.

This service provides care and support to seven people living in their own homes. As well as four people living in two ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

The service did not have registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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. However there was a deputy manager and a replacement manager was in post and was commencing their registration with us.

People who used the service were confident in the ability of staff to keep them safe. No concerns were raised from people and their relatives.

Care plans were detailed and person-centred. Each contained a one page profile that gave staff relevant information when providing care to people who used the service. ‘Person centred’ means the person receiving care is central in developing their care and their preferences are respected.

Support plans contained person centred risk assessments. These identified risks and described the measures to be taken to ensure people would be protected from the risk of harm. This supported people to do the things they wanted to live their life fully.

Staff were trained in safeguarding and were able to describe types of abuse and what they could do to protect people.

There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs safely. Spot checks were carried out by the deputy manager to ensure quality and competency of staff.

Consent was documented in people’s care files and people we spoke with confirmed staff asked for their consent on a day to day basis.

People were supported to maintain their independence on a daily basis with living skills and with personal care where appropriate. They had choice and control over their own life from being supported by person centred care approaches.

People were always respected by staff and treated with kindness. We saw staff being respectful, considerate and communicating exceptionally well with people.

People were supported to maintain good health and had access to healthcare professionals and services.

We saw people were supported to prepare meals, eat and drink sufficient amounts to meet their needs and special dietary needs were supported.

Infection control measures were in place for staff to protect people from the risk of infection through, training, cleanliness and protective clothing where required.

Support staff told us they felt supported to carry out their role and to develop further and that the manager was supportive and always approachable.

Medicines were managed and administered safely. We looked at how records were kept and spoke with the deputy manager about how staff were trained to administer medicines and how this was monitored.

We found an effective quality assurance survey took place regularly and we looked at the results. The service delivered had been regularly reviewed through a range of internal and external audits.

We found people who used the service and their representatives were regularly asked for their views about the support through questionnaire and feedback forms.

People and their relatives were able to complain if they wished and were knowledgeable of how to complain or raise minor concerns.

The manager had informed CQC of significant events in a timely way by submitting the required notifications. This meant we could check that appropriate action had been taken.

27/11/2015

During a routine inspection

The inspection took place on 27 November 2015. The inspection was announced. This was because the service was small we needed to be sure that someone would be home so we could carry out our inspection.

Potens, is a Domiciliary Care service that provides personal care and support to people with learning disabilities who live in their own home. The service covers the Darlington area and currently provides support to16 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 a range of different staff members; the registered manager, area manager and care staff who told us that the registered manager was always available and approachable. Throughout the day we saw four of the people who used the service and staff were comfortable and relaxed with the registered manager and each other. The atmosphere was relaxed and we saw that staff interacted with each other and the people who used the service in a person centred way and were encouraging, friendly, positive and respectful.

From looking at people’s care plans we saw they were written in plain English and in a person centred way and made good use of pictures, personal history and described individuals care, treatment, wellbeing and support needs. These were regularly reviewed and updated by the care staff and the registered manager.

Individual care 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 observations during the inspection showed us that people who use the service were supported in a person centred way by sufficient numbers of staff to meet their individual needs and wishes. The recruitment process that we looked into was safe and inclusive and people chose their own support staff.

When we looked at the staff training records we could see staff were supported to maintain and develop their skills through training and development opportunities. The 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 mandatory and vocational training needs.

We were unable to observe how the service administered medicines on the day of our inspection but we were able to establish how people stored and managed them safely in their own home. We looked at how records were kept and spoke with the registered manager about how staff were trained to administer medication and we found that the medication administering process was safe.

During the inspection it was evident that the staff had a good rapport with the people who used the service and we were able to observe the positive interactions that took place. The staff were caring, positive, encouraging and attentive when communicating and supporting people in their own home with daily life tasks, care and support.

People were being encouraged to plan and participate in activities that were personalised and meaningful to them. For example, we saw staff spending time engaging with people on a one to one basis in activities in the service and we saw evidence of other activities such as art and socialising. People were being supported regularly to play an active role in their local community both with support and independently.

We saw that the service focused on supporting people to have a healthy diet. The daily menu that we saw was devised with the people who used the service and this was used to help them to plan their shopping, manage their personal budget and plan their week ahead. Individual likes and dislikes were supported with meal choices.

We saw a 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 that the service had been regularly reviewed through a range of internal and external audits. We saw that action had been taken to improve the service or put right any issues found. We found people who used the service; their representatives were regularly asked for their views via an annual quality survey to collect feedback about the service.

24, 27 January 2014

During a routine inspection

People who used the service were very positive in their comments about the staff from Potensial North East Supported Living. We spoke with two people during the course of the visit who lived in their own home in Darlington and they said; 'I would talk to my keyworker if I was worried about anything.' and 'I like living here'.

We looked at staffing levels and found that the service had appropriate staffing levels to meet the needs of the people who used the service. People told us they enjoyed their one to one time with staff when they went shopping. We found the staff team were consistent which meant people built trust and positive relations with the staff team.

We found that support plans and risk assessments for people were person centred and written with the person. People showed us their plans and agreed with what was written about their support needs.

There were a range of checks carried out by the provider to check the quality and safety of the support that was provided.

4 December 2012

During a routine inspection

We visited two of the people who received care in their own home. One person told us that they thought their carers were 'alright' and the food that the staff made for them was 'nice' and that they felt safe and cared for as the carers were in 'all of the time'.

Another person said that staff 'sort stuff out' for them and that staff knew their needs well and they had all the phone numbers they needed if they required help when they were on their own.