About the service Fortis Care Hertfordshire is a supported living service and a domiciliary care service. The service provides personal care for people living with a learning disability and/or autism in their own flats. At the time of our inspection there were six people using the service who received the regulated activity of personal care.
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
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.
Right Support
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
The registered manager and the provider promoted care and support focused on people’s strengths and this promoted their independence. People were encouraged to take positive risks and take part in activities and pursue their interests.
Right Care
Staff showed kindness and compassion when supporting people. People trusted and approached staff with confidence. Staff supported people how they wanted and helped them stay safe and enjoy their lives.
Staff received training and support to understand each person’s needs and their support had a positive impact on people’s lives. People were actively involved in their care. Key workers were allocated to each person to help ensure people had regular input and were involved in evaluating their progress, goals and achievements.
Right Culture
The registered manager and provider promoted a positive, caring and inclusive culture amongst the staff team. Staff morale was good, staff felt listened to and empowered to support people in a personalised and safe way.
The registered manager and provider used a range of audits and governance systems which were effective to quality assure the service provided and identified where improvements were needed. A service improvement plan had been developed to show what actions had been taken and if these were effective to drive forward improvements in the service.
Staff received training and understood best practice when supporting people with a learning disability and/or autism. People and their representatives were involved in their care and their views and choices were respected. Staff felt valued and were involved in developing the service to improve people’s outcomes.
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 20/06/2019)
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the management of the service, safety management, staffing and social interaction. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the Safe, Effective, Responsive and Well-led sections of this full report.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.