The Kent Autistic Trust - 118 Beaver Lane

The Kent Autistic Trust – 118 Beaver Lane is a small residential care home providing personal care to five people with learning disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorder aged 18 years and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to six people.

The Kent Autistic Trust – 118 Beaver Lane is a unique service which has a mixture of self-contained flats and bedrooms with shared communal spaces.

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. 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

The service continued to apply the principles and values of Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These ensure that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes that include control, choice and independence.

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 recognised that people had the capacity to make day to day choices and supported them to do so. People were encouraged and supported to be independent. People were engaging in the community, for example utilising their local community to use ordinary community resources, shops, access day services and activities to ensure they had a good day. People were also supported to take holidays both in the UK and abroad.

The provider and staff continued to be exceptionally responsive and worked continuously to make improvements to the service and provide people with high quality care. The provider and staff demonstrated a detailed knowledge of the people they supported and over time had developed trusting relationships with them, so that people felt safe receiving support. The provider had been extremely responsive to people’s needs and designed services specifically to meet people’s changing needs. People were happy and smiling. The sounds and movements people made mirrored the descriptions of the ‘happy’ sounds and movements within their care records. Relatives were extremely happy with the service. Relatives told us, “I’m really happy with Beaver Lane and [registered manager] and the staff. Most staff have been there a long time” and “Staff are kind and caring.”

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 service continued to provide outstanding care and support to people enabling them to live as fulfilled and meaningful lives as possible. The service was innovative and used assistive technology to enable people to be as independent as possible, such as electronic tablets, smart speakers and flashing doorbells. People were able to have privacy and independence with staff accessible nearby. People who had previously displayed behaviours that other people may find challenging were able to live their life to their fullest potential.

The leadership and coaching provided by the registered manager and provider's team ensured that staff had a full understanding of people's support needs and had the skills and knowledge to meet them. Staff had received training, regular supervisions and appraisals. Staff were encouraged to continuously learn and develop by completing qualifications and additional learning. The provider continued to work with other organisations to ensure staff received current and best practice training and information.

Staff were extremely positive about the support they received from every member of the Kent Autistic Trust from the chief executive to colleagues. Every staff member enjoyed working with people with autism. Every staff member demonstrated passion and commitment to providing the best possible care and opportunities for people to live life to the full. This had led to a positive workplace culture, with staff feeling their voices were listened to. Staff told us they were proud of working for the organisation, and would be happy to have them care for their own family.

People had positive relationships with support staff that knew them well. There were enough staff available to meet people's needs and give individual care and support. Staff had been recruited safely. There was a strong emphasis on person-centred care. People were supported to plan their support where possible and they received a service that was based on their individual needs and wishes. The service was flexible and responded to changes in people's needs.

Care plans clearly detailed people’s preferred routines, wishes and preferences. They detailed what people were able to do for themselves and what support was required from staff to aid their independence wherever possible. People were involved in review meetings about their support and aspirations. They were involved in setting goals and targets and were supported by staff to achieve these.

Staff and people received additional support and guidance from the provider's positive behaviour support team and strategies were in place to manage any incidents of heightened anxiety. Staff received regular support from their manager.

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

Rating at last inspection

The service was rated Outstanding at the last inspection on 06 December 2016 (the report was published on 01 February 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 as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

The Kent Autistic Trust - 118 Beaver Lane provides accommodation and personal care for up to six people with an autistic spectrum condition. At the time of the inspection there were six people living at the service. Accommodation is provided on two levels. It is set in a residential street in Ashford, within easy reach of local shops, doctors’ surgery and pubs. One person lives in a flat on the ground floor, which can be accessed from the house, but has its own front door. The ground floor also contains another flat and one bedsit for another person, both choose to use the communal facilities of the main house. In addition there are three single bedrooms with ensuite toilets and wash hand basins on the second floor. There is a communal bathroom and a shower room, kitchen, laundry and lounge/diner, which have doors to the enclosed garden at the rear of the property. There is parking available at the service as well as on street parking.

The management of the service was overseen by a board of trustees for The Kent Autistic Trust. Trustees and the chief executive officer for the trust visited the service regularly.

The service has 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.

People received their medicines when they should and medicines were handled safely. Staff took a proactive and ‘can do’ attitude and approach to risk and as a result people were enabled to do the things they wanted to in a safe way, such as going on holiday to a theme park in France.

The service provided outstanding care and support to people enabling them to live as fulfilled and meaningful lives as possible. People, relatives and professionals were universally positive about the service received.

The service was innovative and used assistive technology to enable people to be as independent as possible, such as sensory mats and key pads. People were able to have privacy and independence with staff accessible nearby. Those that had previously challenged services were able to live their life to their fullest potential.

The leadership and coaching provided by the registered manager and provider’s team ensured that staff had a full understanding of people’s support needs and had the skills and knowledge to meet them. Training records were up to date and staff received regular supervisions and appraisals. The provider worked with other organisations to ensure staff received current and best practice training and information. Staff were very positive about the support they received from managers and enjoyed working for the provider. All staff demonstrated passion and commitment to providing the best possible care and opportunities for people to live life to the full.

People had positive relationships with support staff that knew them well. There were enough staff available to meet people’s needs and give individual care and support. People were supported to maintain relationships that were important to them and went out and about into the local and wider community as they wished.

There was a strong emphasis on person centred care. People were supported to plan their support where possible and they received a service that was based on their individual needs and wishes. The service was flexible and responded to changes in people’s needs.

Care plans detailed people preferred routines, their wishes and preferences. They detailed what people were able to do for themselves and what support was required from staff to aid their independence wherever possible. People were involved in review meetings about their support and aspirations. Staff and people received additional support and guidance from the provider’s positive behaviour support team and strategies were in place to manage any incidents of heightened anxiety. Staff received regular support and supervision from their manager.

The provider operated safe and robust recruitment and selection procedures to make sure staff were suitable and safe to work with people. People were involved in the recruitment and selection process and gave their feedback to managers.

Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity. Interactions between staff and people were caring and kind. Staff were consistently patient, compassionate and they demonstrated affection and warmth in their discussions about people.

People and their relatives had opportunities to give feedback about the service. Any complaints and feedback were listened to carefully, taken seriously and used to improve services.

The provider had sustained outstanding practice, development and improvement at the service. The provider had achieved accreditation and continued to work in partnership with organisations to develop best practice within the service. Staff were highly motivated and were actively involved in and contributed to continuous development and improvement.

The provider had a strong set of values that were embedded into staffs practice and the way the service was managed. Staff were committed and proud of the service. The provider and registered manager used effective systems to continually monitor and improve the quality of the service.

We visited the home at 8am and spoke with three people, two in some detail and spoke with two staff members and the registered manager.

People said they enjoyed their life at Beaver Lane. One person said 'I have been here (many) years and I have like it at all times. I like to Hoover my flat'. Another person told us 'I used to get upset in the past, but not so much now. (The staff and I) we get on well'. They said that the manager was 'A great supporter to us all'.

We were told by a person that staff were 'Polite, smile and are civil'. We observed that staff were friendly, provided enough time for people to make their choices and always obtained consent before giving support. We saw there was always enough staff available.

We saw that paperwork on how to support people was up to date and easy to use. There was a strong focus on people being supported to do things and develop skills. Where people had special dietary support needs, there were clear plans and actions to make sure these needs were met.

The premises were in good condition. There was some wear and tear in the kitchen, but plans had been put in place to refurbish this and utility room within the next 12 months.

We saw that strategies to manage people's behaviour that might place them at risk of harm were documented. We noted that decisions made to promote people's safety were not always documented showing how people's human rights were being upheld. We saw that staff were able to demonstrate that they recognised a potential safeguarding concern and the action to take.

We spoke with a relative who told us that their relative's needs were met by the staff at the service. They added that the staff 'do listen' to what family members suggest, however ideas were not always implemented. The staff did not always inform them of changes to members of staff but they were helpful when they contacted the service to enquire how their relative was doing. Another relative told us that overall the service met their relatives' needs and staff had completed training on sign language to promote communication with their relative.