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Seco Support (North East)

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Office S12, Metropolitan House, Longrigg, Swalwell, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE16 3AS (01752) 393438

Provided and run by:
Seco Support Limited

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 26 July 2022

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

One inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to a person 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 the person’s personal care and support.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

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

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small, and the person and support staff may have been out.

Inspection activity started on 13 June 2022 and ended on 30 June 2022. We visited the office location on 30 June 2022.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 spoke with the person who used the service, their relative, support staff and external health and social care professionals. We contacted five more staff via email.

We reviewed a range of records. This included the person’s care records and samples of medication records. We looked at three staff files. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including auditing, daily notes, training data, policies and procedures were reviewed.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 26 July 2022

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

SECO Support is a ‘supported living’ service providing personal care to one person in their own tenancy at the time of inspection.

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

¿ Staff supported the person to follow their interests and engaged with them well; this included regular walks out and trips in the person’s car.

¿ The person was supported to access specialist health and social care support. They had begun to experience good health and wellbeing outcomes as a result.

¿ Staff worked hard to balance keeping the person safe, but in the least restrictive way. The service used Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) to help ensure there were positive strategies in place. PBS is a person-centred framework for providing support to people with a learning disability, and/or autism, including those with mental health conditions, who have, or may be at risk of developing, behaviours that challenge.

¿ Staff supported the person to take their medicines safely.

Right Care

¿ Staff were appropriately skilled. There were sufficient staff to meet the person’s needs safely.

¿ Staff understood the person’s preferred ways of communicating.

¿ Support plans and risk assessments were detailed and had regard to the person’s preferences and needs.

¿ Staff upheld the person’s dignity. Care was kind, skilled and patient.

¿ Staff had relevant training on safeguarding. They knew how to recognise and report abuse. They worked well with other agencies to identify and reduce risks.

Right culture

¿ The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff were in line with the key principles of guidance such as Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, and best practice guidance by The British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD). Staff felt well supported and understood their roles and responsibilities.

¿ Key information and documents were regularly reviewed and audited. Lessons had been learned from previous incidents.

¿ The person and the people important to them had evidently been involved in care planning and reviews.

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 31 March 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on when the service first registered with us. We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support, Right care, Right culture.

Follow up

We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.