SCASS Ltd provides accommodation and support with personal care for up to eight people with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. Primarily a respite service providing short breaks for people who live with their families or other unpaid carers, three people were staying there when we inspected. The service is provided in a large house in Forest Gate in the London Borough of Newham, which is co-located with a day support service provided by the same provider. The ground floor of the service premises has been adapted for use by people who use wheelchairs or have other mobility limitations. The service supports people who live in the boroughs of Camden, Newham and Redbridge but is available to all.

This unannounced inspection took place on 29 December 2016. The provider met all legal requirements we checked at our last inspection in September 2013.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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.

The service had a very homely and welcoming feel, and staff knew people and their support needs very well. People had care plans to which they were encouraged to contribute, and staff were aware of the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and what this meant for the people who used the service.

Staff were aware of their roles and the leadership of the service was clear in its vision, values and aims. Staff supported people to undertake a wide range of activities and there were always enough staff, who had been properly vetted before they started work, to ensure people could undertake the activities of their choice.

People were supported to eat nutritious foods and access health care services when required.

Staff kept people safe and the service had a robust system of risk assessments and strategies in place to support people safely. People with specific medical conditions had plans and guidelines in place to address these.

Staff supported people with complex communication needs to communicate effectively.

We went to inspect this service following allegations from a whistle blower relating to the day service provision. Staff work who work at the day service also provide care at the respite service which we went to inspect. On the day of our visit, there were no people at the respite service. We looked at staff training records and spoke to staff in order to verify training they had received. We found that staff could satisfactorily explain how they would deal with challenging behaviour, restraint and conflict management.

We found that there were daily log sheets kept for people whilst they used the respite service. The logs verified that there were two people at a time looking after one person on three different respite occasions between June and September 2013. We found one incident logged and action taken following the incident. We spoke to four staff who had worked in the respite service and they all confirmed that there had been one incident.

On the day of our visit there were no people using the respite service. However, we saw some people, who were using the day service, who had also recently used the respite service. People were happy with the respite service.

Representatives of people who used the service were happy with the service. One said, “Thank you, to you all for your support. I know X was happy, safe and inspired by being with you all."

We found that care was assessed before people started using the respite service and appropriate information regarding any care alerts were recorded. Risk assessments were individual and monitored by staff.

There were regular staff meetings, and staff felt that they had support from the manager and senior staff. People and relatives were involved in planning care. Both parents and people who used the service were happy with the service. One person said, "they are very good."

We found that there were no complaints or safeguarding incidents since the Blossom House opened in 2012. Staff had received training about safeguarding and were aware of how to report any concerns to the local authority.