Archived: SeeAbility South Gloucestershire Support Service

Seeability South Gloucestershire is a supported living service providing personal care to people in their own specialist housing. 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. At the time of our inspection there was one person receiving regulated activity.

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

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.

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.

Right Support:

• People were supported by staff to pursue their interests.

• Staff supported people to achieve their aspirations and goals.

• Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcome.

Right Care:

• People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs.

• The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

• Staff and people cooperated to assess risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Right Culture:

• Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing.

• The service enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service. Staff valued and acted upon people’s views.

• People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity.

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 (report published 7 October 2017)

Why we inspected

We inspected the service due to the length of time since our previous comprehensive inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector and took place on 21 September. We gave the provider 48 hours' notice of the inspection to ensure people we needed to speak with were available.

This was the first inspection of the service. The provider registered this service with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 29 September 2015.

As a result of this inspection we have rated the service as Good.

Overall, we found the service provided person centred support to people, that was provided by skilled and motivated staff who were well managed.

There was a registered manager in post at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law; as does the provider. 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 safe. The registered manager and staff followed procedures which reduced the risk of people being harmed. Staff understood what constituted abuse and what action they should take if they suspected this had occurred. There was enough staff to safely provide care and support to people. Checks were carried out on staff before they started work with people to assess their suitability. Where people required assistance with medicines this was well managed and, people received their medicines as prescribed.

The service was effective in meeting people’s needs. Staff had the knowledge and skills they needed to carry out their roles effectively. They received regular supervision and the training needed to meet people’s needs. Arrangements were made for people to see healthcare professionals including a GP when they needed to do so. The service complied with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA).

People received a service that was caring. They were cared for and supported by staff who knew them well. Staff treated people with dignity and respect. People’s views were actively sought and they were involved in making decisions about their care and support. Information was provided in ways that were easy to understand. People's needs with respect to equality and diversity and maintaining their human rights had been assessed and planned for.

The service was responsive to people’s needs. People received person centred care and support. Where it was part of people’s care package the service offered a range of activities and encouraged them to maintain their hobbies and interests. People were encouraged to make their views known and the service responded by making changes.

The service was well led. The vision, values and culture of the supported living service people received were clearly communicated and understood by people, staff, relatives and others. The registered manager provided good leadership and management and, received effective support from the provider to assist with this. A comprehensive and effective quality assurance system was in place. This meant the safety and quality of service people received was monitored on a regular basis and where shortfalls were identified they were acted upon.