Creative Support - Teesside Services

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

Safe – this means we looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. At our last assessment we rated this key question as good. At this assessment, the rating remained as good.This meant people were safe and protected from avoidable harm.

This service scored 81 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The management team had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. Staff listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice.

Staff confirmed they were actively involved in all aspects of safety learning. They described feeling valued, listened to and fully included in discussions about safety improvements. Learning was consistently shared across the team, and staff spoke confidently about how changes were implemented and monitored. This inclusive approach ensured that lessons were not only identified but embedded into daily practice, strengthening the delivery of safe, high‑quality care.

The provider’s electronic reporting system further enhanced safety. It enabled immediate communication, real‑time oversight, and rapid managerial response. Concerns were reviewed promptly, and timely, effective actions were taken. This ensured risks were managed swiftly and consistently, contributing to excellent safety outcomes for people.

The management team worked with people and healthcare partners to establish and maintain safe systems of care. Risks were identified, managed, and monitored to help ensure people received safe support.

From the point of referral, they engaged with people and, where appropriate, their families to understand their needs and plan care effectively. Health and social care professionals were involved to support a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach. Planning processes ensured people’s needs were understood before care began, helping to provide consistent and safe support during transitions. Staff had access to relevant information and clear communication systems were in place, which supported continuity of care and reduced the risk of errors.

Overall, the provider demonstrated good practice in maintaining safe and coordinated care pathways.

The management team demonstrated strong safeguarding and partnership working, collaborating with people and professionals to manage risks. Concerns were shared promptly, with a focus on protecting people’s rights and dignity.

Staff were knowledgeable and vigilant, with a clear understanding of all forms of abuse and their responsibility to report concerns. They spoke confidently about safeguarding training and escalation processes to both internal and external agencies. People told us they felt safe. A person said, “Staff always make me feel safe.”

Robust systems supported safeguarding. Clear records identified actions and shared learning helped improve practice and reduce recurrence, with updates provided to people, relatives, and partners.

Professionals highlighted the management team’s proactive approach. One professional told us, “Creative Support work proactively with the Adult Social Care Transformation team. They

continually engage in local authority initiatives.” They also recognised management’s focus on prevention and empowering people through safeguarding adults’ week sessions.

People were supported to understand and contribute to their own safety. Some had attended safeguarding training organised by the provider, helping them recognise and report abuse, understand their rights and use reporting processes confidently.

People can only be deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment when this is lawful and appropriately authorised. In community settings, this is typically managed through applications to the Court of Protection (often referred to as community DoLS). The management team understood their responsibilities in recognising when care arrangements may amount to a deprivation of liberty and took appropriate action to ensure people’s rights were protected. Care arrangements were kept under review to ensure they remained necessary, proportionate, and the least restrictive option to keep people safe.

The management team always worked well with people to fully understand and manage risks by thinking holistically. Staff provided care that fully met people’s needs and was safe, supportive, and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them.

Staff completed thorough risk assessments and used them to put proportionate plans and equipment in place.

The management and staff were proactive with risk management. Risk assessments were comprehensive, routinely reviewed and directly informed day to day care and contingency planning. Staff recognised the substantial benefits in helping people develop daily living skills by embracing positive risk taking. Staff actively involved people to take managed risks in areas such as attending social events and community outings. One person had expressed a wish to learn how to be more independent and learn cooking skills. Staff supported them to understand risks around food hygiene and cooking equipment over time and helped them to develop their cooking skills. This meant the person was able to achieve their wish whilst being involved in understanding and mitigating associated risks. This approach supported people to build and retain independence while risks of harm were reduced.

Positive Behaviour Support was fully embedded in staff practice; staff were highly trained to anticipate triggers, recognise early warning signs and use preferred de-escalation strategies to prevent escalation.

The provider had a thorough understanding of the benefits of effective communication. Over the past 12 months, the provider has delivered highly personalised, bespoke training to staff which focused on understanding people’s communication and how they expressed their emotions. Staff were given a safe and reflective space to understand people’s individual needs alongside complex care leads, developing a shared and consistent approach to responding to people through verbal interactions, body language, and actions. This proactive and person-centred approach has led to significant and sustained improvements. For a person, behaviours associated with distress had markedly reduced, demonstrating how staff’s enhanced understanding of their communication had led to more effective, compassionate, and consistent support.

Staff detected and controlled potential risks. They made sure equipment, facilities and technology supported the delivery of safe care.

People’s risks to their environment were assessed. People had detailed risk assessments within their care plans covering the environmental risks and potential hazards. There was a service continuity plan and a personal emergency evacuation plan to support the safe evacuation of a person from their home in the event of a fire.

Records showed staff completed regular health and safety checks at people’s homes to maintain a safe living environment.

The management team demonstrated an exceptional approach to staffing, ensuring there were sufficient numbers of highly skilled, experienced, and well-supported staff who worked seamlessly together to deliver safe, person-centred care tailored to individual needs.

Recruitment processes were robust, values-based and inclusive, ensuring only suitable staff were employed. The provider recognised the value in ensuring people who used the service were actively involved in decisions regarding recruitment of staff. The service actively involved people in the recruitment process, which meant people were in control of who would be providing support to them. One person told us, “I help with interviewing people who apply to be carers, which helps me feel more in charge of who might come to care for me.”

Staff received a high-quality, comprehensive training programme which focused on the importance of personalised, person-specific support to meet individual needs. People who used the service were often asked to participate in the induction training so new staff could get a real sense of peoples lived experiences and what was important to them. A relative told us, “New trainees have shadowed experienced staff and learnt how to assist [person] with walking and wheelchair use.” Staff consistently described training as responsive and enabling excellent care. One staff member said, “The training is fantastic, if there is something we don’t know we will get it.”

The management team also showed a highly innovative and responsive approach to developing skills and knowledge for both staff and people. When people who used the service expressed a desire to learn new skills, management worked in partnership with the provider’s trainingacademy to deliver tailored sessions in areas such as first aid, food hygiene, infection control, online safety, and safeguarding. This empowered people and strengthened a culture of shared learning and safety, with skills gained proving invaluable in responding effectively to a real-life choking incident.

The provider truly valued their workforce and were committed financially to developing in-house staff. The provider had developed a ‘development pathway’ which allowed staff to develop from entry levels up to senior management positions.

The management team assessed and managed the risk of infection. They detected and controlled the risk of it spreading and shared concerns with appropriate agencies promptly. Staff had received training in infection prevention and control and understood how to protect people from the spread of infection. Staff told us they had access to personal protective equipment and that this was always available.

When staff visited people at home, they assessed the cleanliness of individuals homes ensuring these are clean, clutter and dust free minimizing the risk of infectious diseases and promoting health and wellbeing.

The management team made sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities, and preferences.

People’s medicines were managed safely. Medication Administration Record (MAR) charts showed people received their medicines as prescribed.

People had guidance within their care and support plans about how they should be supported with their medicines. This included information about what medicines they take, how they take their medicines, and where their medicines were stored.

Staff worked in line with the ‘Stopping Over Medicating People with a Learning Disability’ (STOMP) initiative, by reviewing people’s medicines regularly and by only using sedatives as a last resort.