The Care Quality Commission has rated the quality of care provided by Equal Partnerships, a supported living service in Longbenton, Newcastle, as Outstanding.
Equal Partnerships, which provides supported living services and support with personal care to people with learning disabilities, is one of the first care services to receive the top rating under CQC’s new approach to inspection.
During an unannounced inspection of the service, run by Equal Partnerships Ltd, in July and August 2014, CQC found that staff had the skills, knowledge and experience they needed to support people effectively. This included understanding their needs and supporting them to make choices about the activities they wanted to take part in and to try new things.
People told inspectors that they were supported to be independent and learn new skills, and inspectors saw that activities were varied and regular.
People receiving care and their relatives, were activity involved in recruiting and selecting their team of support staff and told inspectors how they had been involved in interviews and selections.
Each individual had a personal budget and chose on a weekly basis the support they wanted to receive and what they wanted to do with their time.
Staff received essential training, but also training specific to the needs of the people they were supporting and people told inspectors that staff understood their needs, listened to them, and made them feel valued.
Care plans were detailed, and people and their relatives were regularly consulted about their care. People and their relatives knew the management team and told us they would feel comfortable raising concerns if they needed to. Staff told us their managers were approachable and that they could talk to the managers about anything..
A full report has been published on the CQC website.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care in the North, said:
“We found that Equal Partnerships was providing an outstanding service to people it supported and the team there should be extremely proud of the work they do.
“What really struck us about this service was the level of personalised support that people received, from staff who had the right skills and who treated people with great kindness. People told us they liked the staff who supported them, and one relative told us the care that their loved one received had ‘been the making of him’.
“People should always be cared for by services that are safe, effective, caring, responsive to their needs, and well led. I’d encourage other providers to read this report, and the others we have published on services we have rated Outstanding, to see what they can learn.”
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Manager Kirstin Hannaford on 0191 233 3629. Alternatively, the CQC press office can be contacted on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07789 876508.
Find out more
Read our reports on Equal Partnerships.
What really struck us about this service was the level of personalised support that people received, from staff who had the right skills and who treated people with great kindness.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care in the North