About the service:

Phoenix is a domiciliary care agency. It provides a service to adults with learning disabilities and autism. This service provides care and support to people living in five ‘supported living’ settings. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 16 people. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

Requires improvement (published 20 March 2017).

Why we inspected:

This inspection was a scheduled inspection based on the previous rating.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they were happy, felt safe and that staff had a good understanding of their needs and preferences. Staff listened to what people wanted and acted quickly to support them to achieve their goals and aspirations. Staff were innovative and looked to offer people solutions to aid their independence and develop their skills.

People had good community networks which were personal to them. This included, day services and supporting people to access the local amenities and maintaining regular contact with family and friends. Equality, Diversity and Human Rights (EDHR) were promoted and understood by staff.

Improvements had been made to staff training and appraisals since the last inspection. Staff felt they were well trained and skilled. They worked with people to overcome challenges and promote their independence. The emphasis of support was towards enabling people to learn essential life skills. Staff encouraged positive risk taking so people could experience new things and develop. This had led to people feeling fulfilled and living an active life.

People and their families described the staff as caring, kind and friendly and the atmosphere of the home as relaxed and engaging. 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.

Leadership was visible and promoted good teamwork. People, professionals and staff spoke highly about the management and staff had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. The registered manager and staff team worked together in a positive way to support people to achieve their own goals and to be safe. Checks of safety and quality were made to ensure people were protected. Work to continuously improve was noted and the registered manager was keen to make changes that would impact positively on people's lives.

The service was reviewing how best they could meet the values that underpin the 'Registering the Right Support' and other best practice guidance such as 'Building the Right Support'. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. Also, how people with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

A full description of our findings can be found in the sections below.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

The inspection took place on 9 January and was announced. The inspection continued on 10 January and was again announced.

Phoenix is a service made up of five homes in a neighbourhood on a large community campus. It is based on the outskirts of Ringwood and provides care and support to people with learning disabilities. It is registered to provide personal care. At the time of the inspection the service was delivering personal care to 16 people.

This service provides care and support to people living in five supported living’ settings, so that they can live in their own home 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 people’s personal care and support.

Not everyone using Phoenix receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

Staff did not all receive training in areas specific to people they were supporting. This meant there was a risk that people would not receive support from staff with the skills to meet their needs. Staff supervisions did not take place regularly and annual appraisals were not completed.

This was a breach of Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulation 2014 (Part 4). You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

People were not always supported appropriately to understand and meet their personal relationship needs. This meant that people could be at risk of being put in vulnerable situations.

We have made a recommendation about people training on the subject of personal relationships.

Goals and aspirations discussed with people in their reviews were not always reflected in their care plans which meant that some goals were not always met.

Incident reporting systems were not always effective or investigated appropriately.

Robust governance and quality monitoring systems were not established or embedded within the service. This had resulted in some areas for improvement not being identified or actions put in place to address them.

Medicines were not always stored safely. This meant that people were at potential risk of receiving unsafe medicines. We discussed this with the management who told us they would address this.

Medicines were correctly recorded and only administered by staff that were trained to give medicines. Medicine Administration Records reviewed showed no gaps. This told us that people were receiving their medicines.

There was an infection control policy in place and regular cleaning took place in locations to prevent and control the risk of infection.

People’s independence was promoted and staff supported people to develop life skills. People told us that staff were kind and caring.

Personalised care plans were in place which detailed the care and support people needed to remain safe whilst having control and making choices about how they chose to live their lives. Each person had a care file which also included guidelines to make sure staff supported people in a way they preferred. Risk management plans were completed, reviewed and mostly up to date.

People and staff told us that the service was safe. Staff were able to tell us how they would report and recognise signs of abuse and had received safeguarding training. People were provided with information abou