3 January 2018
During a routine inspection
Walsingham Supported Living was last inspected by CQC on 18 and 19 November 2015 and was rated ‘good’ overall and in all areas. At this inspection we found the service remained Good overall and in all areas.
Walsingham Supported Living is a domiciliary care agency. This service provides care and support to 19 people living in ‘supported living’ settings, 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 service had a registered manager in post. 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.
We visited three people in their own home and the atmosphere was very homely, warm and welcoming. People who used the service were relaxed in their own home environment and had a good rapport with their support staff.
People were supported to have choice and control over their own lives from being supported by person centred care approaches. Person centred care is when the person is central to their support and their preferences are respected.
People were supported to forward plan and were also supported to achieve personal goals in their lives.
People were always respected by staff and treated with kindness. We saw staff being respectful, considerate and communicating exceptionally well with people who used limited words to communicate.
People’s support plans were in an easy read format and were person centred. They included a ‘one page profile’ that referenced people’s personal histories and described their individual support needs. These were regularly reviewed.
People were supported to play an active role within their local community by making regular use of local resources including the local shops, social clubs and local activities.
Support plans contained person centred risk assessments. These identified risks and described the measures to be taken to ensure people were protected from the risk of harm. This supported people do the things they wanted to live their lives fully. The support plans we viewed showed us that people’s health was monitored and referrals were made to other health support professionals where necessary.
Staff understood safeguarding issues and procedures were in place to minimise the risk of abuse occurring. Where concerns had been raised we saw they had been referred to the relevant safeguarding department for investigation. Robust recruitment processes were in place.
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.
Where people lacked the mental capacity to make decisions about aspects of their care, staff were guided by the principles of the Mental Capacity Act to make decisions in the person’s best interests. For those people that did not always have capacity, mental capacity assessments and best interests decisions had been completed for them. Records of best interests decisions showed involvement from people’s family and staff.
We saw people were encouraged to eat and drink sufficient amounts to meet their needs. The service was truly reflective of what people liked and people were in control of this and chose what they would like to eat.
Medicines were stored, managed and administered safely.
Infection control measures were in place for staff to protect people from the risk of infection through cleanliness and protective clothing.
People were supported to exercise their rights and regular access to advocacy services and engagement (have your say) opportunities were available.
People were supported to maintain their independence on a daily basis.
Support staff told us they felt supported to carry out their role and to develop further and that the registered manager was supportive and always approachable.
Staff were trained in equality and diversity were also able to maintain and develop their skills through further training and development.
People were supported by enough staff to meet their needs and also individually with one to one support.
Medicines were stored, managed and administered safely. We looked at how records were kept and spoke with the registered manager about how support staff were trained to administer medicines and how this was monitored.
We found an effective quality assurance survey took place regularly and we looked at the results. The service delivered had been regularly reviewed through a range of internal audits.
We found people who used the service and their representatives were regularly asked for their views about the support and service they received.
People and their relatives were able to complain if they wished and were knowledgeable of how to complain or raise minor concerns.
The registered manager had informed CQC of significant events in a timely way by submitting the required notifications. This meant we could check that appropriate action had been taken.