8 November 2016
During a routine inspection
Autism Sussex Domiciliary Care, West Sussex forms part of a larger service provided by Autism Sussex. This includes outreach services, children’s services and day centres, all of which fall outside of the Care Quality Commission’s scope of registration. The domiciliary care service provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of this inspection six people were receiving personal care from this service. No one using the service at the time of the inspection received assistance with their medicines. The service works with people with a learning disability and/or autism.
The service had a registered manager in place. 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People were protected from risks to their health and wellbeing. Up to date plans were in place to manage risks, without unduly restricting people’s independence.
Relatives told us that people were safe at the service and knew who they would speak to if they had concerns. The service followed the West Sussex safeguarding procedure, which was available to staff. Staff knew what their responsibilities were in reporting any suspicion of abuse.
Relatives told us that people were treated with respect and their privacy was promoted. Staff were caring and responsive to the needs of the people they supported. People's health and well-being was assessed and measures put in place to ensure people's needs were met in an individualised way.
Staff received training to enable them to do their jobs safely and to a good standard. They felt the support received helped them to do their jobs well.
There were enough staff deployed to support people with their assessed needs. The registered manager considered people’s needs when allocating staff and staffing levels were calculated appropriately. The registered manager followed safe recruitment procedures to ensure that staff working with people were suitable for their roles.
People benefited from receiving a service from staff who worked well together as a team. Staff were confident they could take any concerns to the management and these would be taken seriously. Relatives were aware of how to raise a concern and were confident appropriate action would be taken.
People and their relatives were empowered to contribute to improve the service. They had opportunities to feedback their views about the service and quality of the care they had received.