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St Anne's Dewsbury Supported Living

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

St Matthews Centre, Cemetery Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF13 2SE (01924) 464102

Provided and run by:
St Anne's Community Services

All Inspections

18 March 2019

During a routine inspection

About the service: St Anne's Dewsbury Supported Living is a small individualised service providing care and support to people with physical and / or learning disabilities, within their own home. At the time of this inspection one person was receiving the regulated activity of personal care twenty-four hours a day.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen. The service was delivered in line with these values.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ The person told us they felt safe and happy. Staff had a good understanding of how to safeguard adults from abuse and who to contact if they suspected any abuse had taken place.

¿ Risk assessments were individualised and minimised risk whilst promoting independence. Staff were trained and competent to administer medicines.

¿ Staff felt supported with an induction and role specific training, which ensured they had the knowledge and skills to support the person. Meals were planned around the persons tastes and preferences.

¿ The person received a good level of support to lead a fulfilling life. They were supported to maintain good health and had access to healthcare professionals and services.

¿ The person was supported to have maximum choice and control of their life and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

¿ Staff were caring and supported the person in a way that maintained their dignity, privacy, independence and cultural heritage.

¿ The person experienced person centred care and engaged in social and leisure activities which they chose.

¿ The registered provider had good systems of governance in place to drive improvements to the quality of the service.

¿ Further information is in the detailed findings below.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated good and remained good at this inspection (last report published 31/08/2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection which took place on 18 March 2019 and was announced.

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

26 July 2016

During a routine inspection

The inspection took place on 26 July 2016. The inspection was announced. This was because the service was a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be available so we could carry out our inspection.

St Anne’s Dewsbury Supported living is a Domiciliary Care service that provides personal care and support to people with learning disabilities who live in their own home. The service covers the Dewsbury area and at the time of our inspection provided support to one person.

The service had registered manager in place. registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 spoke with support staff who told us that the registered manager was always available and approachable. Throughout the day we saw people who used the service and staff were comfortable and relaxed with the manager and each other. The atmosphere was relaxed and we saw that staff interacted with each other and the people who used the service in a person centred way and were encouraging, friendly, positive and respectful.

From looking at the persons care plan we saw that they were written in plain English and in a person centred way and made good use of pictures, personal history and described individuals’ care, treatment, wellbeing and support needs. These were regularly reviewed and updated by the care staff and the manager.

Individual care plans contained personalised risk assessments. These identified risks and described the measures and interventions to be taken to ensure people were protected from the risk of harm. The daily records we viewed also showed us that people’s health was monitored and referrals were made to other health care professionals where necessary for example: their GP and care managers.

Our observations during the inspection showed us that people who used the service were supported in a person centred way by sufficient numbers of staff to meet their individual needs and wishes within their own homes and within the community. The recruitment process that we looked into was safe, inclusive and people were involved in choosing their own staff.

When we looked at the staff training records and spoke with the registered manager we could see staff were supported to maintain and develop their skills through training and development opportunities. The staff we spoke with confirmed they attended a range of learning opportunities. They told us they had regular supervisions with the manager, where they had the opportunity to discuss their care practice and identify further mandatory and vocational training needs.

We were able to observe how the service administered medicines on the day of our inspection we were able to establish how people managed them safely in their own home. We looked at how records were kept and spoke with the manager about how staff were trained to administer medicines and we found that the medicines administering process was safe.

During the inspection it was evident that the staff had a good rapport with the person who used the service and we were able to observe the positive interactions that took place. The staff were caring, positive, encouraging and attentive when communicating and supporting people in their own home with daily life tasks, care and support.

People were being encouraged to plan and participate in activities that were personalised and meaningful to them. For example, we saw staff spending time engaging with people on a one to one basis in activities and we observed and saw evidence of other activities such as art, drama and socialising. People were being supported regularly to play an active role in their local community both with support and independently.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The Act requires that as far as possible people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible. Any DoLS applications must be made to the Court of Protection.

People can only be deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment when this is in their best interests and legally authorised under the MCA. We checked to see if the service had procedures in place and was working within the principles of the MCA. At the time of our inspection no applications had been made to the Court of Protection. From speaking to staff and looking at the training records we could see that training for staff was provided regarding MCA and DOLS.

We saw a complaints procedure was in place and this provided information on the action to take if someone wished to make a complaint and what they should expect to happen next. People also had access to advocacy services and safeguarding contact details if they needed it.

We found that the service had been regularly reviewed through a range of internal and external audits. We saw that action had been taken to improve the service or put right any issues found. We found people who used the service and their representatives were regularly asked for their views via an annual quality survey to collect feedback about the service.

11 November 2013

During a routine inspection

In this report the name of a registered manager appears who was not in post and not managing the regulatory activities at this location at the time of the inspection. Their name appears because they were still a registered manager on our register at the time.

People we spoke with who used the service were positive about their experience of St Anne's Dewsbury Supported Living. They confirmed they had good relationships with staff and told us staff treated them with respect and were kind.

The care records we looked at were up to date and provided good information about how people's care and support needs would be met.

Staff spoken with said training in safeguarding had been provided so they were clear of the action to take if they suspected abuse or if an allegation was made. They described the different types of abuse which demonstrated they were fully aware of potential risks to people's safety.

The service followed a corporate structured recruitment process. We saw that all members of staff had an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in place and a minimum of two references.

The care provider had systems in place to record and deal with comments and complaints.

The complaints policy described how to deal with a complaint and what process to follow and how it would be monitored. The manager informed us this service had not received any complaints for several years.