During an assessment under our new approach
Date of assessment: 6 October 2025 to 23 October. The service is a supported living service providing support to adults with learning disabilities. This was the first inspection since the service had registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
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 were supported by a team who knew them well. We observed staff supporting people kindly and with compassion. People were supported to access the community and were supported to attend a range of activities in line with their needs and preferences. There were regular opportunities for people to provide feedback about their care. Leaders undertook regular governance checks to ensure the service was safe and effective. Leaders promoted the wellbeing of staff.
However, the service did not fully understand or apply the principles of the ‘Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture’ guidance, and the REAL Tenancy Test, which is guidance CQC follows to ensure that people in supported living arrangements have genuine tenancy rights. For example, some people did not have full access to their own home, and a person’s tenancy agreement had been signed by an unauthorised person, meaning it was invalid. There were also some restrictive practices happening at the service. This meant people’s human rights were not always upheld.
We identified two breaches of the legal regulations in relation to the governance of the service, and capacity and consent.