This inspection took place on the 13, 14 and 19 June 2018 and was announced. This was to ensure someone would be available to speak with and show us records.

St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes or in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live 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.

The care service had been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen. Registering the Right Support CQC policy.

St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA was last inspected by CQC on 14, 15 and 18 December 2015 and was rated Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of 'Good' and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risk or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

The service had three registered managers in place. 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People who used the service, relatives and external professionals were extremely complimentary about the standard of care provided by St Anne's Community Services - Durham DCA. Staff treated people with dignity, respect and helped to maintain people’s independence by encouraging them to care for themselves where possible.

There were appropriate numbers of staff employed to meet people’s needs and provide a flexible service. The provider had an effective recruitment and selection procedure in place and carried out relevant checks when they employed staff. Staff were supported in their role via appropriate training and regular supervisions.

The provider and staff understood their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and had received training in the protection of vulnerable adults.

Appropriate health and safety checks had been carried out and people lived in a safe environment.

Accidents and incidents were appropriately recorded and investigated. Risk assessments were in place for people who used the service and described potential risks and the safeguards in place to mitigate these risks.

Medicines were stored safely and securely, and procedures were in place to ensure people received medicines as prescribed.

Care and support plans were in place detailing how people wished to be supported and people were involved in making decisions about their care. The plans made good use of personal history and described individuals care, wellbeing and support needs. Staff knew the people they were supporting and provided a personalised service.

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.

People were protected from the risk of poor nutrition and staff were aware of people’s nutritional needs. People were supported during visits to and from external health care specialists.

People and their relatives knew how to share their experiences or raise a concern or complaint and felt comfortable to do so.

People were supported to access activities based on their likes and interests, and to help meet their s

This inspection took place on 14, 15 and 18 December 2015 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides personal care and support to adults in their own homes. Therefore, we needed to be sure that someone would be in the office. At the time of our last inspection the service was meeting our regulatory standards.

The service provided support to adults with a range of learning disabilities living in their own homes. They provided one to one personal care and support for people, this also included social care in their community.

At the time of our inspection there were 27 people receiving a service across various supported living schemes in County Durham.

The service had been operating for 12 years. Two of the scheme locations did not currently have a registered manager in post the third scheme did. A registered manager is a person who is 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. Both the acting managers had submitted applications to CQC to be registered managers for each of the other two supported living schemes operated by the provider.

We found every person had a personalised care plan and risk assessment in place. Staff were aware of these risks and worked on a multi-agency basis to minimise those risks. When we visited people in their own homes, we saw an up to date paper copy of their care records were kept in a file. One person confirmed that they had been involved in developing their care records.

We found regular quality monitoring of the service had been undertaken. We also saw that the area manager completed regular spot checks and detailed audits in people’s homes. This was to observe staff practice, check people’s records such as their personal care plans and medicine records to make sure they were up to date, reviewed and evaluated and to ensure people were treated with dignity and respect.

St Anne’s has been an accredited Investor in People since 1996. In 2010 the organisation was recognised as a Gold Standard Investor in People and had retained this standard since then.

We saw staff had received Mental Capacity Act and DoLS training as part of the Care Certificate induction training.

We found people’s medicines were well managed. The provider had a medicine recording chart that was easy to use and described what medicines had been prescribed for and any potential side effects.

On the second day and third day of our inspection, we visited 21 people in their own homes. We observed staff speaking with people in kind, compassionate and respectful ways.

People told us they felt their dignity and privacy were respected by staff. One person said, “The staff are very good at what they do and I like living here.”

The service had a complaints policy which provided people who used the service and their representatives with clear information about how to raise any concerns and how they would be managed. We saw pictures had been used to help people understand the information. The support staff we spoke with told us they knew how important it was to act upon people’s concerns and complaints and would report any issues raised to the registered manager or registered provider.

In addition, we looked at 10 service users’ satisfaction surveys. All were consistently satisfied with the care and support they received.