This inspection was announced and took place on 14 December 2015. 24 hours’ notice of the inspection was given because the service is small and people are often out so we wanted to be sure, people who wished to, had opportunities to talk with us. Also the service is currently being supported by a manager from another scheme and we wanted to be able to talk with them during the inspection visit.

Sanctuary Supported Living (Drawbridge House) provides personal care to people who are tenants in a communal house. The service aims to promote independence for people and is designed to be a short term home for people before they move to more independent living environments.

This is the first inspection of the service since it’s registration in December 2014. At the time of the inspection there were five young adults using the service.

There is no 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.

People and staff were not clear about the amount of hours of support allocated to each person. This meant people’s care and support was not planned and delivered in a way that met their assessed needs and helped them to meet the aims of their care and support plans.

Staff were not deployed in a way that took account of people’s allocated personal support hours which meant people were unable to plan their days in a structured way.

Although the provider’s quality assurance systems had identified some shortfalls in the service, they had not highlighted concerns about how people’s needs were being met in practice.

In the absence of a registered manager the provider had provided temporary management which had begun to address some shortfalls in the service. This would help to ensure people saw improvements in the care and support provided to them.

People told us they had been fully consulted about their care plans and risk assessments. One person told us “I got asked all about my needs when I came here and they always do the care plan with you.” Care and support plans showed that all care had been discussed with people and they had signed to state they consented to the care provided. People said everything they did was their choice. One person told us “Everything is up to you.”

People said they were supported by kind and caring staff. One person told us “Staff are always kind to you.” Another person said “They have our best interests at heart.” The staff supported people to arrange to see health care professionals according to their individual needs. One person told us “They always remind you about appointments and help you get there.”

Risks of abuse to people were minimised because the provider had a robust recruitment process that ensured new staff were thoroughly checked before they began work. Staff knew how to report concerns and were confident action would be taken to address any issues raised. There were risk assessments to help minimise risks to people when they were away from the service.

People knew how to make a complaint and told us they would be comfortable to do so. Where complaints had been made action had been taken to investigate to the satisfaction of all parties.

We found two breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.