Archived: MyLife Healthcare South

MyLife Healthcare South is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides support to people who live with complex care needs including people with physical disabilities and learning disabilities and autism. At the time of our inspection there were eight people using the service. People lived in their own houses or flats.

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.

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

Right Support:

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. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making.

Staff supported people to access specialist health and social care support where this support was needed. Where people needed support with meals of drinks staff provided this support. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs.

Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence. People received their medicines as prescribed. Staff were recruited safely and received regular supervision. Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do.

Right Care:

Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people’s cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care. People received kind and compassionate care which was person centred. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. People were protected from the risks of infection.

People’s communication needs were assessed, and they were provided with appropriate support where support was needed. Where people who had individual ways of communicating, such as using body language and pictures staff understood how people communicated.

People’s care, treatment and support plans reflected their range of needs and this promoted their wellbeing and independence. Staff and people cooperated to assess risks people might face. There was detailed guidance for staff on people’s needs. Staff were aware of the risks to people’s health and knew how to support them to reduce these risks.

Right Culture:

People received good quality care, support and treatment because staff had the training, they needed to support people well. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive to people’s needs. People had their own care team and had consistent support from staff.

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care. People and their relatives were involved in regular reviews of their care to ensure staff were aware of changing needs.

Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals as appropriate. Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity.

Incidents were well managed, and action was taken to reduce the risk of re-occurrence. Notifications were sent to CQC as appropriate. The registered manager was aware of their duties under the law.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 22 June 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.