- Homecare service
Stepping Stones to Independence
Assessment report published 31 December 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of inspection: 18 November to 8 December 2025.
Stepping Stones to Independence is a care at home service. It provides personal care and support to people, including adults living with learning disabilities and autistic people, in their own homes. At the time of our assessment, 8 people received support with personal care. 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.
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. We found the provider met expectations and provided support in line with this guidance.
Staff were kind and compassionate when speaking about the people they supported. Staff explained how they respected people’s wishes and preferences and supported their independence to help them have good health, wellbeing and quality of life.
People’s needs were assessed, and support was planned to meet their individual needs. This was regularly reviewed, although all records were currently being checked and updated to ensure they were accurate and relevant.
The management team was keen to continue developing the service and had identified areas for improvement during this inspection process. This included ensuring compliance with staff training and supervision and improving visit consistency for the people they supported. Action had been taken to improve the effectiveness of governance processes, and these changes were being embedded.
Staff worked with other agencies and professionals to meet people’s safety, health and wellbeing needs. We received positive feedback about the organisation, staff and leaders.
People's experience of this service
People and their relatives were positive about the service overall. Comments included, “We are very, very pleased they are in our lives” and “The staff are very kind and considerate.”
People were supported to be safe. Staff encouraged people to make choices and develop and maintain their skills and independence. This included when people faced challenges or risks. Staff usually knew people well and understood what was important to them. People were involved in activities and routines which were individual to them and their needs and interests.
People or their relatives were involved in assessments and developing care plans and risk assessments. Relatives said staff knew people well and understood their needs. They respected people’s choices and gave them control wherever possible.
The provider asked people and their relatives to give feedback to ensure they were satisfied and to help the service continued to develop. Some relatives and people told us communication and consistency could be better at times. However, they also said this had improved recently. People and their relatives said they would be able to raise any concerns and knew how to contact the management team.