Learning and Support Services Limited

Learning and Support Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. At the time of the inspection 16 people were using the service.

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 autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

People and their relatives spoke enthusiastically about how exceptionally caring, kind and supportive the staff and management were and how they were always willing to go above and beyond to ensure people received high quality care. They told us about the highly positive impact the service had made to their lives and how the care they received had enabled them to carry on when they were struggling or feeling isolated and encouraged them to develop their independence.

People and relatives told us they felt fully involved in the service and said there was a ‘family style’ and ‘collaborative’ approach to how care was delivered. Staff told us they felt valued and supported and proud of what they had achieved. One member of staff said, “They genuinely care about every person and staff member. I am proud to be a part of this team.”

People’s care was highly personalised and enabled them to achieve good outcomes. People were valued as individuals and were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests and the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were supported by a small and consistent staff team who knew them very well. People received their care at their preferred times and the provider was flexible and quick to adapt to any changes in people’s preferences for their care visits.

Risks to people’s safety were assessed and monitored and people had personalised risk assessments in place. The provider had systems in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and staff knew how to recognise and report any concerns. Staff had access to appropriate personal protective equipment [PPE] and safe infection prevention and control processes were in place.

The provider had processes in place to ensure staff were safely recruited. However, some applicant's references were not in line with best practice guidance. We have made a recommendation about the provider's recruitment processes.

Staff received an induction when starting in their role and completed relevant training to develop their skills and knowledge. The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service and had built positive working relationships with other healthcare professionals to support people’s needs, share learning and develop the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 8 October 2019 and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service at the previous premises was Good, published on 30 May 2019.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection as the service has not been rated since registering at its current premises.

Follow up

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