Newsome Road - St Paul's House

Updated 7 June 2019

The inspection: We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type: This service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, 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.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection: We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection site visit activity started and ended on 23 April 2019. We visited the office location on 23 April 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. Following our site visit we spoke with relatives and professionals by telephone.

What we did: Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. The provider had sent us this information which we reviewed. We also contacted professionals involved in caring for people including local authority commissioners and the local authority safeguarding team.

We spoke with the registered manager and five staff members. We also spoke with one person who used the service and two family members. A third family member gave us permission to use in our report their feedback they had sent to the service in an email. We reviewed three people’s care documents and gathered information from other records held by the provider. These included records about staff training, complaints, audits and accidents and incidents.

Updated 7 June 2019

About the service: Newsome Road - St Paul's House provides a supported living service. It provides care and support to four people with learning disabilities living in two terraced houses next door to each other.

This service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, 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.

People’s experience of using this service: The service was exceptional at placing people at the heart of the service. The managers and staff of the service had a strong focus on people having as many opportunities as possible to develop their confidence, gain new skills and become as independent as possible.

There was a very positive culture in the service. Staff attributed this to the strong guidance in the service and believed the high levels of positivity in the service stemmed from outstanding leadership.

The outcomes for people using the service truly reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support in the promotion of choice, control independence and inclusion. People’s support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent. Promoting people’s independence was a significant strength of the staff team.

Managers constantly looked for ways to improve the service. They had engaged people in how they would prefer the provider’s governance arrangements to be carried out to avoid any impact on people living in their own home.

Relatives and other professionals we spoke with during our inspection highly praised the service and the impact it was having on people. People were in control of their own lives and were supported by staff who were determined to ensure people could make their own choices. Staff assisted people to make their wishes a reality.

Staff understood people’s personal risks and had worked with them to develop their skills and minimise risks. People had been enabled to access the community and public transport with confidence.

People, relatives and other professionals told us how people were highly valued, shown great respect and their dignity preserved. Managers engaged representatives from across their services to listen to their views.People were supported to have the optimum 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.

Staff were exceptionally caring. They all shared the same hopes and aspirations for people to continue to live the lifestyle of their choice. People’s voices were of paramount importance in the service.

There was clear and consistent working with other professionals who supported people. Staff had promoted people working with other professionals and sought their advice when needed.

Recruitment practices for the service were safe. Staff were supported through an induction, training and supervision. This included the safe management of medicines and safeguarding. Additional training had been sourced for staff when people’s needs had changed.

People were actively engaged in managing their own records. Care plans were accurate, up to date and based on robust assessments of need.

The provider welcomed comments about the service. They had an accessible complaint’s process available to people. The service had not received any complaints.

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

Rating at last inspection: Good (Date last report published November 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection based on our previous rating of the service

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service and re-inspect the service in line with the current rating