The Oaklea Trust (South Lakes & Furness)

About the service

The Oaklea Trust (North West) provides support and personal care to people with a learning disability and/or autism living in supported living services and in their own homes the local community. 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 the service supported 20 people with their personal care.

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

Right Support

People had fulfilling and meaningful lives because staff focused on their strengths and promoted what they could do. People were supported to pursue their interests. One person told us, “I like going to Club with my friends.” Another person said, “I’m going to work today.” Staff supported people to have the maximum choice, control and independence and to have control over their own lives. People had a choice about their living environment. They were able to personalise their rooms and included in choosing décor for their homes.

Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community. They supported people to play an active role in maintaining their own health and wellbeing. People received the support they needed to take their medicines. Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence.

Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. They advocated for people to be able to make decisions about their own lives. People were supported to express their views and wishes because staff knew them well and knew how to communicate with them.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care. People said they liked the staff and enjoyed spending time with them. We observed people laughing and joking with staff.

People’s care, treatment and support plans reflected their range of needs and promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life. Staff understood and responded to people’s individual needs and respected people’s privacy and dignity. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Staff understood how to protect people from abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Where concerns were raised the registered manager and staff worked cooperatively with partner agencies to resolve them.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. The provider had identified challenges with staff recruitment and retention and was considering innovative ways to attract and retain staff.

Right culture

People received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing. They placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did.

Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity. They spoke to and about people with respect. One staff member told us, “I think [people] have good relationships with staff who ensure that they do their best to support them with any goals or aspirations they have.” The staff said they felt well supported and could raise any concerns with the service management.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

We carried out a focused inspection at this service between August and November 2021 in response to concerns about how people were protected from abuse. We looked at the key questions of safe and well-led. Both were rated as requires improvement and we found a breach of regulation. We could not give an overall rating for the service as it was the first inspection since the service had been registered with us at its new address and we had not inspected all the key questions. The outcome of the inspection was “inspected but not rated” (published 23 December 2021).

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

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

Follow up

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

The Oaklea Trust (North West) provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes in the South Lakeland and Furness districts of Cumbria. The service is managed from offices in Kendal.

The service provides support to people living in nine supported living houses in Kendal, Barrow-in-Furness and Ulverston. It also supports people living in their own homes in the community. At the time of our inspection the service supported 27 people with their personal care. The service supported people who had a learning disability and/or autism and/or a physical disability.

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

The systems to assess and manage risks had not always ensured people were protected from the risk of harm. The provider had systems to learn and improve the service. They took action to improve the safety of the service during the inspection. There were enough staff to support people. Staff were trained in how to identify and report abuse. People received their medicines safely. People were protected from the risk of infection.

The systems used to assess and monitor the quality and safety of the service had not identified where improvements needed to be made. People were asked for their views about their support. The provider worked cooperatively with other agencies. The provider arranged for additional management oversight and support to improve the service.

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.

Based on our review of safe and well-led key questions the service was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. Some aspects of the service were not always safe and people were placed at risk of harm. Staff were caring to people and supported them to follow activities they enjoyed. People were given choices about their lives and their independence and dignity were promoted.

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 14 November 2019 and this is the first inspection at this address. The service was previously registered at another address. The last rating for the service at the previous premises was good, published on 14 March 2019.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to how the provider ensured people were protected against the risk of abuse. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. We will inspect the other key questions at our next full inspection of the service.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

The provider had identified areas of the service which needed to be improved and had provided additional senior manager support and oversight to address issues found.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to the management of risks at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.