Avalon Scarborough Services

Scarborough Service provides support to people living in supported living settings, the community and shared lives placements. The service primarily provides support to people with a learning disability and autistic people. At the time of our inspection there were 33 people using the service who were in receipt of support with personal care.

People’s experience of the service and what we found:

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

Right Support

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. Staff supported people to lead full lives and be as independent as possible. People received safe support with their medicines. Infection prevention and control practices reflected current guidance.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff respected people's privacy and dignity and responded to people's individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse; they had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe. The service worked with other agencies and supported people to receive the healthcare they needed. People's support plans reflected their needs and preferences.

Right culture

People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to working with people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. This meant people received care that was tailored to their needs. There had though been several management changes since our last inspection, and this had impacted on aspects of consistency and staff morale. There was no registered manager, which is a condition of the provider’s registration. The provider was in the process of recruiting a new manager at the time of the inspection, and interim management arrangements were in place in the meantime. Quality Assurances processes were in place but needed to be used more effectively. We have made a recommendation about quality assurance.

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

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for the service at the previous premises was Good, published on 10 August 2018.

The service moved offices and was registered as a new location on 29 April 2022.

Why we inspected:

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and the length of time since the last inspection.