Mencap North East (Durham,Gateshead,Darlington,Northumberland South & South Tyneside) DCA

Updated 14 December 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

An inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

Mencap North East (Durham,Gateshead,Darlington,Northumberland South & South Tyneside) DCA provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. This service also provides care and support to people living in 30 ‘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.

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 were 2 registered managers in place, who oversee services in the different geographical areas.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave a short period of notice of the inspection because we needed to ensure the management team were available and to contact people to gather their feedback.

Inspection activity started on 27 October and ended on 15 November 2023. The inspector visited the office location on 27 October, 3 and 15 November 2023. During the inspection we also visited people living in 5 of the ‘supported living’ settings.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We also sought feedback from partner agencies and healthcare professionals. These included the local authority’s contracts and commissioning services. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

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.

During the inspection

We met 13 people who used the service and received feedback from 2 relatives and 3 external healthcare professionals. We spoke with the 2 registered managers, 5 service managers, an assistant manager, 9 care staff and we received feedback from 6 care staff. We looked at people's care records, medicine records and a variety of management and quality assurance records for the service.

Updated 14 December 2023

About the service

Mencap North East (Durham, Gateshead, Darlington, Northumberland South and South Tyneside) is regulated to provide personal care and support to adults with learning disabilities and autistic people living in their own homes. Some people lived in their own individual home and some in ‘supported living’ settings, so that they could live in their own home as independently as possible. At the time of the inspection there were 144 people using the service, of which 70 people required assistance 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.

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.

Right Support

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. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life. Staff supported people to achieve their aspirations and goals. They had supported people to make significant changes to the lifestyle which had led to major improvements in their health. People were supported safely with medicines. Infection prevention and control practices reflected current guidance.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to people’s individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. The service worked well with other agencies and were regularly complimented on how well they engaged with healthcare professionals and supported people to receive the healthcare they needed. People’s care, treatment and support plans reflected their range of needs, and this promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life.

Right culture

People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to the wide range of strengths, impairments or sensitivities people with a learning disability and/or autistic people may have. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff were aware of and were working to best practice guidance for supporting people with a learning disability and/or autistic 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 1 September 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe and well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Mencap North East (Durham, Gateshead, Darlington, Northumberland South and South Tyneside) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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