St Anne's Community Services - North Tyneside DCA

Updated 8 November 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

One inspector, one regulatory co-ordinator and one Expert by Experience carried out the inspection. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in ‘supported living’ settings, 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.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection the service did not have a registered manager in post. They were actively recruiting and anticipated filling the role imminently.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small and people are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

Inspection activity started on 10 October 2023 and ended on 13 October 2023. We visited the service on 10 October 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR). A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 people who used the service. We observed staff interacting with people. We spoke with the area manager, quality assurance manager, deputy manager, specialist support worker and 2 other support staff. We contacted 5 more staff via email, and 4 health and social care professionals via telephone and email. We contacted 3 relatives via telephone.

We reviewed a range of records. This included people’s care and support records and medication records. We looked at 2 staff files. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including auditing, training data, photographs, analysis, policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 8 November 2023

About the service

St Anne's Community Services - North Tyneside DCA is a ‘supported living’ service providing personal care to people, some of whom have a learning disability and/or autism living in their own homes. The service was supporting 8 people with personal care at the time of our inspection.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support

¿ People were relaxed in their own homes, where they could be themselves. They enjoyed the rapport they had built up with staff. Staff helped people enjoy a good quality of life and encouraged them to pursue a range of interests.

¿ Staff worked well with people, their relatives and external professionals, such as social workers, to ensure they had the right support to meet their changing needs.

¿ People experienced good health and wellbeing outcomes. Staff worked in line with the principles of Stopping the Over-Medication of People living with Autism and/or a Learning Disability (STOMP) to ensure the use of medicines was reviewed and reduced where possible.

Right Care

¿ Staff took the time to get to know people. They knew the best ways to encourage people to be independent and how to proactively support them. Staff celebrated people’s achievements and independence.

¿ Staff understood people’ needs in detail. There were person-centred plans in place to help new staff and external professionals gain a comprehensive understanding of people. The provider was actively reviewing and improving these plans regularly.

¿ Staff worked proactively and promptly with external professionals to keep people safe. They sought and followed advice when it was needed. They tried new approaches and if they didn’t work, tried another approach.

Right culture

¿ The culture of the service was focussed on keeping people safe and ensuring they could lead fulfilled lives. The oversight of good practice had not always been effective – the provider had identified this and taken steps to make improvements prior to our inspection visit. Some audits and quality checks/visits had not always happened as planned but staff had consistently provided high levels of care to people. Staff had worked hard as a team to ensure any shortfalls in auditing and oversight had not had an impact on people’s care or the outcomes they achieved.

¿ People and their relatives were involved in decisions about their care and how the service was run.

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

Rating at last inspection

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.