About the service Zero Three Care Domiciliary Care is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in supported living accommodation. The service provides specialist care to people with a learning disability. Many people using the service have a diagnosis of Autism, neurological difficulties and/or other complex needs. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting eight people, all of whom received personal care. Support is provided in six individual flats and one 3-bedded house currently shared by two people.
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.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. Zero Three Domiciliary Care had been developed and designed to ensure people using the service live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The provision of planned, inclusive, person centred support had truly transformed the lives of the people providing opportunities and life experiences which had previously not been accessible to them.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The registered manager was passionate about ensuring the service provided person-centred care. They led by example and were highly visible and approachable in the service for people, relatives and staff. Staff emulated the culture of the service and were dedicated to empowering people to achieve the best possible outcomes.
The values of the service placed people at the centre of its decision making. There was an open and transparent culture which enabled people, relatives and staff to voice their opinions and focused on continuous improvement. The service had a clear vision for what it wanted to achieve, and a detailed strategy was in place to put this into practice. Staff felt respected, valued and supported by the leadership of the service. Without exception, relatives told us the service was exceptional.
Staff supported people to maximise their emotional and physical potential through a collaborative and supportive approach to care. This enabled people to work towards attaining individual goals and personal aspirations. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People had been assessed to ensure the service could meet their needs. Care assessment and planning records were detailed to enable close monitoring of peoples' care, progress and future planning. Information about people’s likes and dislikes and how staff should support them were in place. The service was proactive in its response to concerns or complaints and people and relatives were given the opportunity to feedback their experiences.
Staff had completed training which provided them with the knowledge to assess, monitor and support people. Staff had built effective working relationships with other health and social care professionals involved in people's care to ensure they received a high level of care and support.
Staff were provided with safeguarding training and understood how to keep people safe.
Risks in people's daily lives were assessed and mitigated with a focus on positive risk taking. There was an open and transparent culture in relation to accidents and incidents and they were used as opportunities to learn and lessen risks.
Safe staff recruitment procedures were in place. Staff recruitment processes were designed to meet people’s individual needs. There were enough staff numbers and flexibility to provide the care and support required by people to meet their individual needs.
Medicines were safely managed, and effective infection control procedures were in place.
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.
The registered manager had worked for the provider for a number of years and had been involved in previous CQC inspections at different locations They had used the lessons learned from this to develop an exceptional service which enabled people with very complex needs to move out of residential settings and have their own tenancies, offering them choice and an alternative to more institutional care.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
This service was registered with us on 12/06/2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection.
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.