Creative Support - Ulverston Autism Service

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment, and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

At our last assessment we rated this key question Good. At this assessment, the rating has remained Good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 83 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider always made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by thoroughly assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing, and communication needs with them.

People received consistent and effective care because their needs had been skillfully and comprehensively assessed. Assessments included input from a wide range of sources. This included information from other professionals involved in people’s care, local authority commissioners, learning disability team practitioners, advocates, and relatives. The staff, together with the registered manager and in-house complex care team completed holistic assessments which put people’s needs at the centre of their care plans. Staff were positive about the quality of the care plans and felt confident they included enough information about people's needs and how best to meet them. One staff member said, “We must read the care plan before supporting the person. It will guide you. I still refer to care plans to review. The manager encourages us to go through the care plans.”

Communication plans had been fully developed and revised over time for each person. This had also helped ensure people had been as involved in decisions about their care. Care plans and communication plans were reviewed and updated regularly.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

People received effective care because their care plans had been developed based on best practice. The provider had a complex care team which together with the registered manager and staff, developed evidenced based strategies to support people. Regular reviews and updates helped keep plans current.

People were supported to maintain their nutrition and hydration needs. The cook prepared meals which reflected people’s tastes and preferences. Menus had been provided with pictorial guides to support people’s choices. Staff recorded people’s intake in care records which helped staff feedback to other professionals and maintain effective oversight.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

People received effective support because the registered manager and staff team worked together to achieve consistent and clear information about people’s needs and preferences.

Care records contained information from other agencies, including health staff, the local authority learning disability team and the provider’s complex care team. Staff were supported to understand the input from other professionals.

People were supported when they transitioned between services. Everyone had an up-to-date hospital passport, which helped ensure their health and wellbeing needs could be understood by other agencies.

Staff praised the quality of the team and how well they worked together. One staff member said, “I like it because it doesn't feel like a workplace, it is like a family the team are very supportive and work well together.” Another said, “I feel proud of the whole team we all work together.”

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice, and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives, and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

People were supported to maintain optimum health. The provider ensured everyone had a current Health Action Plan (HAP). The HAP included full information about people’s health conditions, treatments, routine health screening and any actions needed to achieve health goals, such as weight management or exercise.

The registered manager said they were experiencing difficulties accessing dentists because the community dentist was no longer available but they were trying to source alternative provision.

Not everyone had regular eye health screening, the registered manager was also seeking to resolve this.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent.

People had improved health outcomes because the registered manager and staff had supported them to access healthcare, for example, a person had been supported, by staff, to follow medical advice in relation to their health and comfort and this had led to them having a more active life and experiencing physical improvements. A further example was, staff had been able to identify changes in a person’s presentation, which led to them having surgery.

Staff completed daily physical health checks and recorded their findings on body maps and in care records. Staff continued to try to support people to access to routine health monitoring. Some community health resources were no longer available and the provider was seeking alternative provision.

The provider always carefully explained to people what their rights around consent were, made sure they fully understood them and always fully respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

People were supported to an exceptional level to be included in decision making at all levels. The providers complex care team supported the registered manager and staff team to understand how to support people in the least restrictive way possible.

Care plans included mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions had been made with input from the person and their relatives, or advocate. Where a person did not have support from a relative the provider ensured they had support from within the organisation.

Where people were required to be deprived of their liberty, the provider ensured legal authorisations were in place and, any conditions included in the authorisations were met.

A relative told us, “[Name] has a Deprivation of Liberty Authorisation in place with conditions about how to respond to [Name].”