About the service: The inspection took place on the 13 May 2019 and was announced. Spencer House provides a supported living service. There are 15 independent flats for people with a learning disability. There were 14 people receiving the service on the day of our inspection, however only four people received the regulated activity of personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

People received a service from staff who knew them well and were supported to take positive risks to maintain their independence.

Staff were trained to identify vulnerable adult safeguarding concerns and felt managers listened and acted on these.

The provider carried out appropriate checks on potential new employees to ensure they were the right staff to work with people. People took part in this recruitment process.

People were supported to lead healthy lives and attend regular health appointments. Staff had a good understanding of mental capacity and how this applied to supporting people in their everyday lives.

People needing assistance to shop for and prepare food were supported to do so.

Staff were caring in their approach to people’s needs. External health and social care professionals had also commented on the service providing good care and support.

Care plans did identify people’s individual risks and needs but these were reviewed infrequently and we found that they were not always up to date, or gave sufficient information about how staff should support people. However, staff did know people’s well and could describe people’s needs clearly.

We have made a recommendation about care reviews to ensure that peoples care remained person centred.

The service did not support anyone with end of life care needs, but staff had not always approached the subject of peoples end of life needs.

We have recommended that the service review end of life training for staff.

The provider had a system in place to audit the service, but this was an overview and did not contain information of how they had determined outcomes. They had not identified the concerns we found with care plans.

We have made a recommendation around governance processes.

People and staff felt well supported by managers and people were safe. People living at the service were supported to lead a good quality of life.

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection and the first inspection for the service under a new provider.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor Spencer House and return to inspection within the rating guidelines.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk