Background to this inspection
Updated
4 March 2015
We inspected Ambitious about Autism on the 16 July 2014. This inspection was announced. 48 hours’ notice of the inspection was given, this allowed the provider to inform and prepare people we would be visiting.
The inspection team included an inspector and a specialist professional advisor. The specialist professional advisor had experience of working with young people with autism.
Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also checked other information we held about the service. No concerns had been noted at our last inspection in September 2013.
During our inspection we looked at how young people were supported during their day at the service. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.
We also reviewed four care and support records of the people who used the service, four staff records and records about how the service was managed.
During the inspection we spoke with three people using the service, six support staff, the principal of a college associated with the service and the registered manager. After the inspection we spoke with three social workers and four relatives.
This report was written during the testing phase of our new approach to regulating adult social care services. After this testing phase, inspection of consent to care and treatment, restraint, and practice under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) was moved from the key question ‘Is the service safe?’ to ‘Is the service effective?’
The ratings for this location were awarded in October 2014. They can be directly compared with any other service we have rated since then, including in relation to consent, restraint, and the MCA under the ‘Effective’ section. Our written findings in relation to these topics, however, can be read in the ‘Is the service safe’ sections of this report.
Updated
4 March 2015
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and to pilot a new inspection process being introduced by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which looks at the overall quality of the service.
The provider met all of the regulations we inspected against at our last inspection on 28 September 2013.
Ambitious about Autism provides care and support to young people aged 16 to 25 with autism to access further education, gain skills and confidence. The service is based at Barnet college and operates during the day. On the day of our visit eight people were using the service.
The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service and shares the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law with the provider.
Staff working at the service understood people’s individual needs and we saw all staff treated people with kindness. People and relatives were happy with the care and support they received from staff.
Professionals were kept up to date with changes in people’s needs and were invited to their review meetings. Staff supported people to access health professionals if needed.
Staff were appropriately trained and skilled to work with people who had autism, which ensured the care and support provided to people was safe and appropriate. We saw that all staff had received an induction when they started working at the service and understood their roles and responsibilities.
We saw that people and their relatives were involved in the planning of their care and educational needs as well as how the service was run. We saw people were treated with dignity, privacy and respect by all staff.
The registered manager assessed and monitored the quality of the service consistently and encouraged feedback from people, relatives and staff, which they used to make improvement to the service. The people who used the service were able to access advocacy services should they need support and help to make important decisions.
At the time of our inspection plans were underway for the service to transition to a college, Ambitious College. This occurred in September 2014.