We carried out a review of the data available to us about Sturts Community Trust on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Sturts Community Trust, you can give feedback on this service.
Sturts Community Trust is part of the Sturts Farm Camphill Community. It provides care and support to working age adults with a learning disability or autism, living in several shared supported living houses. These are located on Sturts Farm and in West Moors. People using the service have differing levels of need for staff support. Some of the houses have waking night staff or staff who sleep in. Some staff live in the shared houses as part of the Sturts Farm community. The service has offices at Sturts Farm.
Not everyone who uses the service receives 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 the inspection, 23 people were receiving personal care from the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and relatives liked the service and felt safe there. They described staff as kind and caring. People were encouraged towards independence. They were happy with the way risks were managed. There were enough staff on duty, who understood people’s support needs and managed their medicines safely.
The provider had an up to date infection prevention and control policy. They had introduced procedures to manage the risks COVID-19 posed to everyone connected with the service. Staff had access to the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) and were using this correctly.
People, relatives and staff expressed confidence in the leadership of the service. They were positive about communication. Managers worked closely with people and staff, who said they found them approachable. People’s and staff’s individuality, including their equality characteristics, were respected.
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.
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.
This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
Right support:
• The model of care and setting maximised people’s choice, control and independence. People made choices about all aspects of their lives. Staff fostered their independence. People were encouraged to take responsibility for different aspects of life on the farm, which were meaningful and important to them.
Right care:
• Care was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. Care and support were provided in a way that met people’s individual needs and wishes. Staff treated people with respect. People’s equality and human rights were upheld.
Right culture:
• The ethos of the service and the values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensured people using the service led confident, inclusive and empowered lives. People valued being part of the Sturts Farm community. There was an emphasis on links with and service to the local community, for example through the provision of free school meals.
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 28 December 2018).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to the culture and management of the service. 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. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has not changed. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report. The provider was aware of the risks and its action to mitigate them had been effective.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Sturts Community Trust on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
Sturts Community Trust is a domiciliary care agency. It provides a service to younger disabled adults. This service provides care and support to people living in nine ‘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.
Sturts Community embedded holistic Camphill values and practices which were to work and create communities in which people with additional needs can live, learn, and work with others in healthy social relationships based on mutual care and respect. The nominated individual told us that involving people was fundamental to the service they deliver.
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.
At our last inspection we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.
Sturts Community provided very good person centred care and examples of this were observed throughout our inspection. Feedback from people, relatives and professionals was that the level of care was “amazing” and “very good”. Independence was actively promoted and embedded in the homes which in turn gave people roles, taught them new skills and gave them a real sense of purpose. Communication needs were understood and met by staff who thought of creative and innovative ways to respond to these. Disability was not seen as a barrier to people living fulfilled, purposeful lives.
Staff were compassionate, kind and highly motivated in their roles. The service was mindful of and creative with matching people and staff. Staff were sensitive when people needed caring and compassionate support. The involvement of an advocacy service was promoted at Sturts Community and a person had been working with a local advocate to set up an independent advocacy group at the service. People were supported positively and safely to form friendships and intimate relationships with others of their choice.
People were protected from avoidable harm as staff understood how to recognise signs of abuse and the actions needed if abuse was suspected. There were enough staff to provide safe care and recruitment checks had ensured they were suitable to work with vulnerable adults. When people were at risk of seizures or behaviours which may challenge the staff understood the actions needed to minimise avoidable harm. The service was responsive when things went wrong and reviewed practices in a timely manner. Medicines were administered and managed safely by trained staff.
People had been involved in assessments of their care needs and had their choices and wishes respected including access to healthcare when required. Their care was provided by staff who had received an induction and on-going training that enabled them to carry out their role effectively. People had their eating and drinking needs and preferences understood and met. Opportunities to work in partnership with other organisations took place to ensure positive outcomes for people using the service. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People had their care needs met by staff who were knowledgeable about how they were able to communicate their needs, their life histories and the people important to them. Equality Diversity and Human Rights (EDHR) were promoted and understood by staff. A complaints process was in place and people felt they would be listened to and actions taken if they raised concerns. No one living at the service was receiving end of life care at the time of the inspection.
The service had an open and positive culture that encouraged involvement of people, their families, staff and other professional organisations. Leadership was visible and promoted good teamwork. Staff spoke positively about the management and had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Audits and quality assurance processes were effective in driving service improvements. The service understood their legal responsibilities for reporting and sharing information with other services.
Further information is in the detailed findings below
Sturts Community Trust provides personal care to 28 people with learning disabilities. People lived in nine houses spread across farm land. There was also an onsite creamery, a farm shop and a working farm. The houses varied in size from two to eight people living in shared supported living environments.
Sturts Community embedded holistic Camphill values and practices which were to work and create communities in which people with additional needs can live, learn, and work with others in healthy social relationships based on mutual care and respect. The nominated individual told us that involving people was fundamental to the service they deliver.
Medicines were not always stored or recorded safely. This meant that people were at potential risk of receiving spoilt medicines. We discussed this with the management who put an action plan in place to address these.
Whilst reviewing medication files in one home we noted that records dated back to 2013. This made files very lengthy and could cause confusion to new and experienced staff regarding the correct medication people are taking and which Medication Administration Record sheet is in use. We discussed this with the service manager who archived and created new medication folders there and then. This demonstrated positive leadership.
There were detailed care and support plans in place based on individual preferences, likes dislikes and people’s needs. Goals were set and broken down into steps appropriate for people to achieve them.
There were enough staff in place to meet peoples care and support needs who had received appropriate pre-employment checks on their suitability prior to them starting work at Sturts Community. Staff told us they received enough training to enable them to do their jobs. They felt supported by senior staff and one staff member told us they enjoyed working at the home and felt management were approachable. They experienced the team as friendly and welcoming. There was a system for ensuring staff completed mandatory training and staff had an annual appraisal and further learning was supported.
Only staff who had received appropriate medicines training were able to administer medicines. We noted that medicines were dispensed into small glass dispensing pots and or egg cups. This posed a small risk to people if they were dropped and smashed. We discussed this with the registered manager who told us that these would be replaced with disposable dispensing pots.
People had access to healthcare when they needed it. People’s care records demonstrated contact with a variety of health and social care professionals.
People’s views were obtained in a number of ways. The registered manager told us they had regular contact with people and their families and had informal discussions with them. This meant the care and support people received was audited and improvements made.
People were supported to maintain contact with people who were important to them and there were no restrictions on visiting times. People had different interests and liked to spend the day in ways which suited them. There was a range of vocational, social and leisure activities which included farming, cheese making, college, swimming, shopping and bowling to name a few. People had active timetables which reflected the activities they had an interest in.
There were good relationships between the management and the care workers who worked closely together. The management team provided formal supervision as well as day to day supervision. All new staff had completed or were working towards completing the care certificate.
People and staff we spoke to told us they felt the service was well led and that the management was very approachable and open to suggestion and learning. Regular quality checks took place. These ensured that Sturts Community practices and delivery of care and support was monitored and improvements made as and when required.
The service had made statutory notifications to us as required. A notification is the action that a provider is legally bound to take to tell us about any changes to their regulated services or incidents that have taken place in them.