St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA

St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA provides personal care to people living in supported living services. This service primarily offers support to adults with learning disabilities or autistic people. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 17 people with personal care in 3 supported living settings in County Durham.

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

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.

Right support

Staff focused on people's strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful life. The service worked with people to plan for when they experienced periods of distress, so their freedoms were restricted only if there was no alternative. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. People told us staff supported them to do the things important to them, such as going on holiday, cooking and attending football matches.

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.

Right care

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people's privacy and dignity. Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. Staff understood and respected people's religious and cultural needs and supported them accordingly. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse.

People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs. Staff supported people to try new activities that enhanced and enriched their lives. Staff and people co-operated to assess risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Right culture

People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management team and staff. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing. Staff placed people's wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff valued and acted upon people's views. People's quality of life was enhanced by the service's culture of improvement and inclusivity.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 19 July 2018).

Why we inspected

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

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last comprehensive inspection (report published 19 July 2018) to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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

St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes or in a ‘supported living’ setting, 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 care service had been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen. Registering the Right Support CQC policy.

St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA was last inspected by CQC on 14, 15 and 18 December 2015 and was rated Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of 'Good' and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risk or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

The service had three registered managers in place. 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.

People who used the service, relatives and external professionals were extremely complimentary about the standard of care provided by St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA. Staff treated people with dignity, respect and helped to maintain people’s independence by encouraging them to care for themselves where possible.

There were appropriate numbers of staff employed to meet people’s needs and provide a flexible service. The provider had an effective recruitment and selection procedure in place and carried out relevant checks when they employed staff. Staff were supported in their role via appropriate training and regular supervisions.

The provider and staff understood their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and had received training in the protection of vulnerable adults.

Appropriate health and safety checks had been carried out and people lived in a safe environment.

Accidents and incidents were appropriately recorded and investigated. Risk assessments were in place for people who used the service and described potential risks and the safeguards in place to mitigate these risks.

Medicines were stored safely and securely, and procedures were in place to ensure people received medicines as prescribed.

Care and support plans were in place detailing how people wished to be supported and people were involved in making decisions about their care. The plans made good use of personal history and described individuals care, wellbeing and support needs. Staff knew the people they were supporting and provided a personalised service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were protected from the risk of poor nutrition and staff were aware of people’s nutritional needs. People were supported during visits to and from external health care specialists.

People and their relatives knew how to share their experiences or raise a concern or complaint and felt comfortable to do so.

People were supported to access activities based on their likes and interests, and to help meet their social needs. The service had good links with the local community.

The provider had an effective quality assurance process in place. People who used the service, relatives, visiting professionals and staff were regularly consulted about the quality of the service.

We looked at five people's care records and found appropriate consent to care was obtained before people received care, and where people were not able to give consent the provider had followed the correct legal procedures.

People were cared for by sufficient staff who had relevant skills and records used to support people were fit for purpose. Care records we looked at had comprehensive information regarding people's likes and dislikes and information regarding people's care needs and the steps staff needed to take to ensure risks associated with receiving care which was not safe had been minimised. We also found the provider had followed relevant guidance and research by ensuring people had positive behavioural support plans where they had complex needs and also hospital passports and health action plans to ensure people's physical health care needs were met.

There was a system in place to protect people from abuse. The provider had a policy for reporting abuse and where incidents had occurred then relevant authorities had been informed.

We saw people being involved in day to day decisions about their care; we also saw documentary evidence that care needs assessments were compiled in discussion with people using the service or their families.

People were supported to make choices and to develop independent living skills. One person said 'I am supported to do the things I want;" another said 'They help me to do what I want to.'

During our visits we also had the opportunity of watching staff practices as they supported people. We heard staff address people respectfully and explain the support they were providing. Staff were friendly and polite and understood the communication needs of the people in their care.

People said they knew they could speak to a member of staff if they had a complaint. One person said "I would tell staff."