About the service:

¿ South East Supported Living and Domiciliary is a service that provides personal care to 11 people who live in their own homes. At the time of the inspection no one was receiving personal care from the service who lived in a supported living environment. The service supported younger adults, older people, people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ The service continued to provide people with a safe service. Systems and processes were in place to manage medicines safely and to protect people from the risk of harm and abuse.

¿ Safe recruitment practices were followed with enough support workers to cover people’s planned visits.

¿ People's care and support led to good outcomes. Support workers were sufficiently trained and had the skills and knowledge to meet people’s individual needs.

¿ People received care in a manner which was in accordance with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

¿ Where required, people were supported with their dietary needs, to maintain good health and access healthcare services where needed.

¿ The service continued to provide people with a caring service. Support workers had developed good relationships with people, treating them with kindness and compassion. They protected people’s privacy and dignity and promoted their independence.

¿ People’s care records were accurate and reflected the care and support provided.

¿ The service listened to people’s experiences, concerns and complaints and acted where needed.

¿ The service was well run with effective systems to assess and monitor the service to continually improve.

Rating at last inspection: At our last inspection of 16 and 17 June 2016, which was published 12 August 2016, the service was rated good.

Why we inspected: We inspected this service in line with our inspection schedule for services currently rated as good.

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 information is received that we need to follow up we may inspect sooner.

See more information in Detailed Findings below.

The inspection took place on 16 and 17 June 2016. South East Supported Living and Domiciliary is a service that provides personal care and support to people who either maintain a tenancy in supported living accommodation or who live in their own homes.

This was an announced inspection. The provider was given up to 48 hours’ notice because the service provides care and support in people’s homes we needed to be sure someone would be available at the time of our inspection.

At the time of the inspection the service provided care, including 24 hour support, to a group of ten people in two supported living accommodations plus six people in their own homes. The service is registered for the provision of personal care. This includes assistance or prompting with washing, dressing, toileting, medicines, and eating and drinking. The service also provided other forms of support such as shopping and assistance to access the community.

There were three registered managers in post to cover the two aspects of the service; supported living and domiciliary. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People who used the service had a wide range of support needs. This included physical disabilities, and mild to severe learning disabilities. Some of the people had very complex support needs and required support from the service 24 hours a day. Several people were more independent and received support for just a few hours a day to help with their daily routines.

People were safe and staff knew what actions to take to protect them from abuse. The provider had processes in place to identify and manage risk. Assessments had been carried out and personalised care plans were in place which reflected individual needs and preferences.

People received care from a consistent staff team who were recruited safely, supported and trained. Support workers understood the need to obtain consent when providing care. People and or their representatives, where appropriate, were involved in making decisions about their care and support arrangements. As a result people received care and support which was planned and delivered to meet their specific needs. Support workers listened to people and acted on what they said.

The provider had systems in place to support people to take their prescribed medicines safely. Where people required assistance with their dietary needs there were systems in place to provide this support safely. Where support workers had identified concerns in people’s wellbeing there were effective systems in place to contact health and social care professionals to make sure they received appropriate care and treatment.

There was a complaints procedure in place and people knew how to voice their concerns if they were unhappy with the care they received. People’s feedback was valued and acted on. There was visible leadership within the service and a clear management structure. The service had a quality assurance system with identified shortfalls addressed promptly; this helped the service to continually improve.

We met with three people who used the service to gain their views and experiences about the service they were provided with. They did not verbally communicate their views with us, so we observed their body language and reactions to staff engagement and interaction. We saw that people were smiling and laughing with staff and responding in a positive way to the interaction.

We looked at four people’s care records which provided information for staff on how to meet people’s individual health and care needs. We saw that people’s choices and preferences were reflected in the care records and written in a way that promoted their independence.

The care records showed that people's needs were assessed and care and treatment was planned in line with their individual care plan.

We saw the provider’s policies and procedures, which included safeguarding vulnerable adults from abuse, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. We saw that the safeguarding policy included information of the local procedures for reporting abuse. This included reporting to the local authority safeguarding team, who were responsible for investigating concerns of abuse.

We looked at staff records and spoke with three members of staff who told us they were being appropriately supervised and supported. Staff we spoke with were knowledgeable about the people they supported and how to meet their needs.

We saw that the provider had systems and procedures in place to regularly monitor and assess the quality of the service provided.

During our inspection we saw that staff interacted with people in a caring, respectful and professional manner.