SENSE - Community Services (South West)

Updated 8 August 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to children and young people living in their family homes.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. They were on an extended period of leave, but suitable cover arrangements were in place.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 5 July and ended on 12 July 2023. We visited the location’s office on 5 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we reviewed information we had received about the service since it registered with CQC. This included CQC notifications. These describe events that happen in the service that the provider is legally required to tell us about.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

The children and young people who received support from the service were not able to speak with us. We spoke with 8 parents about their experience of the care provided. We received feedback from 3 professionals who worked with the service. We spoke with 5 members of staff, including managers and support staff. Everyone’s comments have been incorporated into this report.

We looked at a range of records about children and young people's care and the running of the service. We looked at the support records of all the children who used the service, and reviewed 5 in detail. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff support. We read documents relating to the management of the service including audits, policies and procedures and training information.

We considered all of this information to help us to make a judgement about the service.

Updated 8 August 2023

About the service

SENSE - Community Services (South West) is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to children and young people in their own homes. The service provides support to children and young people who may have sight and hearing impairments but may also have other disabilities or complex needs.

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 12 children and young people were receiving personal care from the service. Staff providing this service were called 'Intervenors'. We have used this term when referring to staff directly providing the service throughout our report.

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’s experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support:

Intervenors focused on children and young people’s strengths and preferences. They promoted what children and young people could do to support them in having a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life. Children and young people benefitted from the interactions with Intervenors.

Intervenors knew how to communicate with children and young people in ways that best met their needs.

Intervenors supported children and young people to have maximum choice and control of their lives where possible. Intervenors supported children and young people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Families were involved in discussions about how their children received support and reviewed this regularly.

Right Care:

Children and young people received kind and compassionate care. Intervenors understood and responded to their individual needs.

Intervenors usually supported the same children and young people. They had a good understanding of individual communication needs and supported children effectively.

Intervenors understood how to protect children and young people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Intervenors had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

Families worked with Intervenors and managers to assess and manage the risks children and young people might face. Where appropriate, Intervenors encouraged and enabled children and young people to take positive risks.

Although the service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet children and young people’s needs and keep them safe, more staff were needed. There was a programme of ongoing recruitment to enable to the service to expand.

Right Culture:

Intervenors understood the wide range of strengths, impairments and sensitivities the children and young people could face. This meant children and young people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs.

Intervenors and managers were positive about their roles. They placed children and young people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of what they did.

Intervenors provided consistent care to children and young people. The management team were endeavouring to recruit more staff to provide additional sessions.

Families, managers and Intervenors worked together to plan and evaluate the support provided to children and young people.

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 13 December 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and the length of time since the last inspection.

Follow up

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