The Wilf Ward Family Trust - Supported Living (Boothferry & the Wolds)

The Wilf Ward Family Trust Domiciliary Care Boothferry and Leeds provides personal care and support to people with a learning disability and/or autism living in and around Goole. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 22 adults, across seven supported living houses.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People using the service were truly respected as individuals. The recognised people as individuals and understood the value of their expertise in making decisions about how care should be delivered.

The leadership and culture of the service supported the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care. Managers empowered staff to care for people in a way that exceeded expectations.

People were kept safe from risk of abuse and avoidable harm. They were supported by enough, competent and skilled staff. Medicines were safely managed and administered as prescribed.

People’s received care based on a thorough understanding of their needs and experienced consistently good outcomes.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The service applied the principles and values of Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These ensure that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes that include control, choice and independence.

The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support by promoting choice and control, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 5 May 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

The Wilf Ward Family Trust Domiciliary Care Boothferry and Wolds is a home care service providing 24 hour care to people that live in supported living houses. These are located across the Boothferry area from Market Weighton to Pocklington and Goole. People rent their accommodation, under tenancies, from housing associations that have agreements with The Wilf Ward Family Trust. People that use the service have a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder and live in groups of three and four in shared rented accommodation. People receive support with personal care, finances, medication and social activities. There were 27 people receiving the service at the time of this inspection.

The registered provider is required to have a registered manager in post. On the day of the inspection there was a manager that had been registered and in post since the service was registered. 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.

People were protected from the risk of harm because the registered provider had systems in place to detect, monitor and report potential or actual safeguarding concerns. Support workers were appropriately trained in safeguarding adults from abuse and understood their responsibilities in respect of managing potential and actual safeguarding concerns. Risks were also managed and reduced on an individual and group basis so that people avoided injury or harm.

Supported living houses were maintenance checked. Each house held up-to-date premises safety certificates and contracts. Support worker numbers were sufficient to meet people’s needs and we saw that rosters in the houses accurately cross referenced with the support workers on duty. Recruitment policies, procedures and practices were carefully followed to ensure support workers were suitable to care for and support people. Recruitment incentives were in operation. We found that the management of medication was safely carried out.

People were cared for and supported by qualified and competent support workers that received regular supervision and had their personal performance annually appraised. Communication was effective, people’s mental capacity was appropriately assessed and their rights were protected, although the service had yet to submit applications to the local authority regarding Court of Protection orders that were required. The service was awaiting acknowledgement from the local authority that they were ready to receive the applications.

Employees of the service and particularly support workers had knowledge and understanding of their roles and responsibilities in respect of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and they understood the importance of people being supported to make decisions where possible. The registered manager explained how the service worked with other health and social care professionals and family members to ensure specific decisions were made in a person’s best interests where they lacked capacity to do so.

People received adequate nutrition and hydration to maintain good health and wellbeing. People received compassionate care from kind support workers who knew about people’s needs and preferences. People were involved in all aspects of their care and were always asked for their consent before support workers undertook care and support tasks. People’s wellbeing, privacy, dignity and independence were monitored and respected.

Person-centred support plans reflected people’s needs well and were regularly reviewed. People engaged in many different pastimes and activities if they wished to and led very active and full lives. People had very good family connections and support networks.

An effective complaint procedure was in place and people had their complaints investigated without bias. People that used the service, relatives and their friends were supported to maintain relationships.

The service was well-led and people had the benefit of a culture and management style that was friendly, progressive and positive. There was an effective system in place for checking the quality of the service using audits, satisfaction surveys, meetings and good communication. People were assured that recording systems used by the support workers and management team protected their privacy and confidentiality. Records were well maintained and held securely in the houses or at the service location offices.