Archived: Self Unlimited - 70 High Street

- The service is in a residential area of Kibworth, close to the village centre.

- The service provides accommodation and personal care to people with learning disabilities and autism. The care home can accommodate six people in one building. At the time of our inspection there were four people using the service.

• This is one of many locations that the provider operates nationally.

People's experience of using this service:

• The service provided a safe service.

• People liked living at the service.

• There was a homely atmosphere for people.

• People were protected against abuse, neglect and discrimination. The staff member was aware of ensuring people's safety and acting when necessary to prevent any harm.

• The staff member knew people well and people appeared to enjoy the attention from the staff member.

• People were assisted to have choice and control of their lives.

• People had a say in how the service was operated and managed.

• People's care was personalised to their individual needs.

• Fully comprehensive governance processes were not fully in place to ensure quality care. Questionnaires had not been supplied to people and staff for their views of the service. Auditing to check that a quality service was provided was not comprehensively in place.

• The service met the characteristics for a rating of "good" in all key questions except well led.

• More information is in the full report.

Rating at last inspection:

• At our last inspection, the service was rated "good." Our last report was published on 17 March 2016.

Why we inspected:

• This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, high quality care. Further inspections will be planned for future dates.

70 High Street is a service that provides accommodation for up to six people. There were five people living at the service at this time. Care and support was provided to enable people to live as independently and as full a life as possible. People set their own goals and support was provided for people to achieve these.

There was a person who was in the management role who had just applied to become the registered manager of the service. A 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

One person we spoke with told us that they felt safe at the service. We saw that support was provided after the completion of risk assessment and in line with support plans.

Members of staff knew the individual needs and choices of people. We saw that the routines discussed were reflected in the support plans that we reviewed.

Staff voiced a thorough awareness of how to protect people from abuse and avoidable harm. They also knew what actions to take if they suspected or witnessed any issues that they felt were unacceptable. This meant that staff ensured any incidents of concern were dealt with and reported in a timely manner.

Staffing numbers were decided on after the routines and choices of people had been assessed. Therefore ensuring support was delivered by appropriate numbers of staff.

Medicines were stored and administered safely as staff had been trained to be aware of the current procedures and regular audits supported this. Staff had the necessary training and skills that were needed to provide them with appropriate knowledge to support people. We reviewed the training programme that showed that basic training was completed by all staff and then further refreshed when needed to update their skills. An induction programme was in place for all new staff that were employed at the service.

Healthcare professionals were contacted when required and any instructions were followed by staff. Care plans contained clear details relating to the individual conditions of a person and how to provide the appropriate support.

All staff were aware of the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) 2008. Our observations and review of records showed that people were encouraged to make independent decisions and choices. People who lived at the service confirmed that staff asked before any support was provided and that they decided how they spent their day.

There were systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service. This included regular discussions and meetings with the people who lived at the service. The provider regularly issued questionnaires to gather the opinions and thoughts of individuals, these were then collated and discussed with the staff team.

We found that the service had assessed people's needs and planned and delivered care in a way that met people's individual needs. A key aim of the service had been to support people develop skills that helped them prepare to be able to live in their own flats.

The service operated an effective procedure for the safe management of medicines.

The service had effective procedures for assessing and monitoring the quality of service being delivered.