Matson House

We assessed the service against the ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether people with a learning disability and autistic people received respect, equality, dignity, choice, independence, and good access to their local community. Although the service was registered before the guidance was introduced and is larger than what current best practice recommends it was therefore not consistently aligned with all the core principles. However, the provider had put measures in place to ensure that care was planned in a person-centred way, and the ethos and delivery of the service followed the principles of the guidance.

During the assessment we visited the service, spoke with people, staff and management. We reviewed people’s care records and risk assessments and the medicines records of five service users, including care plans and medicines administration records.We also looked at medicines audits, policies and training records. We observed a medicines administration round.

We identified concerns relating to the environment, including where the provider was not compliant with HSE (Health and Safety Executive) guidance and had therefore failed to ensure window safety at the home. We raised this with the provider who took immediate action to make the environment safe.

Support plans were person-centred and clearly detailed people’s preferences, strengths and aspirations. Staff understood people’s needs well and provided support in ways aligned with personal goals, abilities, and preferences.

The management team were exceptional at enabling people to share feedback and ideas, or raise complaints about their care, treatment and support. Staff always involved people in decisions about their care and told them what had changed as a result.

The management team and staff worked alongside health and social care partners to maintain continuity of care, including transition periods between services. Visiting professionals told us the service worked collaboratively, communicated effectively and remained open to advice and support. Quality monitoring systems were in place to monitor the care provided.

Incidents and near‑miss events were recorded in detail, reviewed promptly, and learning was shared with the staff team. Staffing levels were safe and recruitment was completed appropriately.

Leaders promoted a positive culture based on transparency, equity and human rights. Staff described an inclusive environment and told us they felt supported in their roles, with access to supervision, training and ongoing guidance from the management team.

The provider responded promptly to feedback during the inspection and took action to improve processes, including sharing their action plan to ensure the safety of the physical environment.