Stonepit Close

Staff had the skills and knowledge to meet people's needs and preferences. They had received specialised training, regular supervision and attended team meetings to ensure they were confident in their roles. People's nutritional and hydrational needs continued to be met and they were supported by health and social care professionals as required.

Family members and staff told us the registered manager promoted an open culture of communication and staff confirmed they felt well supported. The provider used effective systems of quality assurance and governance which improved people's experience of care. The building was checked through regular audits as well as regular health and safety checks by staff and external professionals.

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. People's views were continually sought, and they were encouraged to be as independent as possible and to be involved in decisions about their care.

Quality assurance processes were robust to give oversight of the service. The registered manager and team leader had ideas of how to continuously improve people's lives and valued working in partnership with others to achieve this.

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 guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support: • Stonepit Close offers accommodation to 10 people with learning disabilities and autism. This is larger than current best practice guidance. However, the home is spread between two separate side by side houses, which are similar to other privately owned homes in the area and there were no identifying signs to indicate it was a care home. The care home is located within walking distance of local shops and amenities. Staff were observed to enable people to make day to day choices, including around food and activities and to access the community. The provider engaged with local commissioning partnerships in order to strive for continuous improvement.

Right care: • Staff understood people's specific care needs and preferences and supported people in a person centred way. We saw that people's dignity was respected and any personal care required was done so discretely and the person's dignity was not compromised. Staff enabled people to make choices about how they wished to be supported in any given activity. People had been supported to personalise their own rooms and communal areas.

Right culture: • The leadership team and staff showed commitment to those whom they supported. They spoke with passion and knowledge about their role, central to which was to empower those whom they supported to live their best life possible. Staff told us they viewed themselves as visitors to the home and as such, the needs and views of those whom they supported were paramount and must be respected at all times. We observed that people moved around their home with confidence and placed trust in the staff team to support them safely and in the least restrictive way.