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Balance Domiciliary Care

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Guildhall 2, High Street, Kingston Upon Thames, KT1 1EU

Provided and run by:
Balance (Support) CIO

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about Balance Domiciliary Care 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 Balance Domiciliary Care, you can give feedback on this service.

16 June 2022

During a routine inspection

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.

About the service

Sessions House, Domiciliary Care is a service providing support to people with a learning disability in their own houses and flats. At the time of inspection there were 98 people using the service. Some people lived in their own home, whilst other people lived in shared living accommodation. People received a variable number of support hours per week, depending on their assessed needs.

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

Right Support: Model of Care and setting that maximises people’s choice, control and independence.

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. People had choice and control around their care arrangements. Care focussed on people’s abilities and promoted their independence.

Right Care: Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. Staff were respectful of people’s dignity, privacy and treated them as individuals with their own beliefs, thoughts and aspirations.

Right Culture: The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensured people using services led confident, inclusive and empowered lives. The management team displayed caring and person-centred values. They modelled this behaviour to staff and set expectations that these values should be integral to staff’s working practice.

The support provided by Sessions House, Domiciliary Care enhanced people's lives by helping them to develop their skills and seek opportunities to lead fulfilling lives. People were supported to maintain relationships that were important to them and the support arranged so people could access the services and activities that they wished. People’s support plans identified how they would like to be supported and what they would like to achieve with the help of care and support. People’s communication needs were identified and met to help ensure they could direct their support and communicate their needs. New digital systems were being introduced for staff to more easily access and record all this important information.

People were supported to stay safe whilst being enabled to take positive risks to promote their independence. There were enough staff, who had received the right training and support to effectively undertake their role.

People were supported to lead healthy lives and access healthcare services when required. Where appropriate, health and social care professionals were involved in planning and reviewing people’s care. The service was proactive in maintaining these professional relationships and effective in implementing the advice given.

There were effective systems to oversee and improve the quality of the service. There were service managers and senior staff in place who were responsible for organising and overseeing people’s support. The registered manager was knowledgeable, approachable and professional in their lead role.

Staff were caring and respectful. People told us that they liked the staff and felt listened to. Staff were motivated in their role and understood the importance of promoting people’s privacy and dignity.

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

Why we inspected

This service was registered with us in June 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Follow up

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