Voyage (DCA) London East

Updated 20 May 2023

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was undertaken by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and provides care and support to people living in 6 ‘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.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection. This was because people are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

Inspection activity started on 5 April 2023 and ended on 13 April 2023. We visited the location’s office on 5 April 2023 and services on 6 April 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from Healthwatch, Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We met with 4 people in their homes and 2 people whilst attending a planned trip out. We spoke with 4 relatives of people who use the service about their experience of the support provided to their loved ones. We sought feedback from 7 health and social care professionals who regularly visits the service and 7 members of staff including the registered manager, members of the management team, team leaders, field care supervisors and support workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed.

Updated 20 May 2023

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Voyage (DCA) London East is a domiciliary care agency supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people with personal care. People lived in supported living accommodation and in the community. At the time of our inspection 11 people were being supported.

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

Right Support

The service was exceptionally well-led. The provider’s ethos and values were respected and followed by staff. This was evidenced by the person-centred support people received.

People received outstanding care and support by highly motivated, compassionate, and dedicated staff. Staff fully understood people’s aspirations and encouraged them to achieve their goals. Staff knew people extremely well and supported them to promote and improve their independence to live a meaningful and varied life. People were supported by a stable staff team which provided a consistently high standard of care and support.

People had personalised and tailored positive behaviour support (PBS) which met their needs. PBS plans provided staff with detailed guidance to promote a positive quality of life for people and identified when they need to intervene to prevent or reduce the likelihood of an episode of distressed behaviour.

People were empowered 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. Where people lacked mental capacity to make decisions, staff were following the principles of best interests for people and restrictions were kept to a minimum.

Right Care

People received highly personalised support from staff who were passionate about achieving the best outcomes for people. Staff worked with health and social care professionals to deliver a service which empowered people to achieve their goals and aspirations.

Staff respected people’s abilities and strengths and went the extra mile to ensure people’s achievements were celebrated. For example, staff attended people’s graduation ceremonies. The service had enough well trained and skilled staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe.

People's support plans were exceptionally detailed and clearly reflected their needs and preferences on how they wished to be supported. People and staff communicated well with each other because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs.

Right Culture

The service was positive and inclusive; people were at the heart of everything they did. People lived empowering lives and were supported to take part in activities which were meaningful to them, when they wanted. The service ensured an open culture to speak up, so people received support based on transparency and openness. When people provided feedback about the staff or service, their comments were listened to and acted upon.

Staff supported people well to achieve their aspirations to lead a fulfilling life as they wished. People and those important to them, were involved in planning their support and worked with staff to identify and reduce risks.

The staff team were extremely focused on providing person-centred support which was responsive to people's needs. There was a strong emphasis from the management team on continuous improvement to the service to support people to receive the highest standard of care.

Staff were highly valued by the provider and registered manager, and they were recognised for their achievements. Staff were extremely complimentary about the support they received from the management team.

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 2017).

Why we inspected

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

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to outstanding based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Voyage (DCA) London East on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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