New Prospects provides care and support to 213 people up to 24 hours per day, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and their wider social support.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and/or autism using the service can live as ordinary life as any citizen.

At our last inspection we rated the service outstanding. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of outstanding and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

At this inspection we found the service remained outstanding.

Everyone spoke extremely highly of the staff and gave us multiple examples of outstanding care. People and relatives told us staff maintained their dignity and treated them with utmost respect. The whole staff team were incredibly enthusiastic and passionate about the services they provided. Staff demonstrated that they were extremely committed to making a positive difference to people’s lives.

People were cared for exceptionally well in the comfort of their own homes. Staff knew the people they supported remarkably well and we observed staff acting with kindness and patience.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The service was entirely flexible and provisions were changed and adapted to meet people’s current needs and choices. There was excellent communication with external professionals to ensure services achieved positive outcomes for people.

Support plans were extremely person-centred and accurately detailed each person’s history, their current care needs and the social support they required. Risk assessments were in place to identify and mitigate risks to people’s health and safety. Wherever possible, positive risk taking was promoted to encourage people to become more independent. Lessons learnt from incidents were an essential part of the continuous improvement and development of further precautionary measures.

Staff promoted activities which inspired people to participate in pastimes that were motivating and meaningful to them. Individual activity plans were in place which empowered people to get involved in social events that they were interested in. Staff ensured people had the chance to pursue education and work. We heard about people who had achieved dreams and ambitions. Group activities were arranged to maintain people’s links with their local community and provided further opportunity for social interaction with family and friends.

There had been very few complaints made about New Prospects. This demonstrated that overall people and relatives were pleased with the services provided. The management team presented multiple opportunities for people, relatives and staff to talk to them about the service. Everyone was actively encouraged to contribute to decisions made about the services.

There was an extremely experienced and well established registered manager in post who ensured regular checks on the quality and safety of the service were meticulously carried out. The whole management team were avid supporters of collaborative working and they often organised and led partnership events with other organisations to ensure any decisions made benefitted the people who u

The inspection took place on 21 and 22 April 2016 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice because the service was a domiciliary care agency and we wanted to make sure someone would be at the office to assist with the inspection.

The service was providing personal care to 60 people in their own homes (Independent Supported Living) in North Tyneside, Newcastle and Northumberland. The service also provided outreach support to 43 people in Newcastle, five of whom receive personal care and to 54 people in North Tyneside, three of whom received personal care. A number of people received 24 hour support from staff. Most of the people who used the service had a learning disability. The service also supported older people, those living with dementia, people with a mental health condition and those with a sensory impairment. They were not providing personal care for children; however they were looking to do this in the future.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.

The provider’s vision and values were imaginative and person-centred to make sure people were at the heart of the service. This vision was driven by the exceptional leadership of the chief executive, manager and special projects manager. People, relatives and staff were extremely complimentary about the manager and the provider. There was a strong emphasis on continually striving to improve. The manager, staff and people carried out a number of checks to monitor the quality and safety of the service.

Staff were highly motivated and demonstrated a clear commitment to providing dignified and compassionate care and support. They told us that they enjoyed working at the service and morale was excellent.

People and relatives described the responsiveness of staff as “outstanding.” Staff found inclusive ways to meet people’s needs and enable them to live as full a life as possible. A creative activities programme was in place to help meet people’s social needs.

People were actively encouraged to give their views and raise concerns or complaints. There was a complaints procedure in place and people knew how to complain. Various inclusive feedback systems were in place to obtain people’s views.

People told us that they felt safe. There were safeguarding policies and procedures in place. Staff were knowledgeable about what action they would take if abuse was suspected. There was a safe system in place for the management of medicines.

People, relatives and staff told us there were enough staff to meet people’s needs. There was a training programme in place. Staff were trained in safe working practices and to meet the specific needs of people who lived at the service.

People were supported to receive a suitable nutritious diet. People, relatives and health care professionals spoke positively about the caring nature of staff. We observed that people were cared for and supported by staff with kindness and patience.