Adult Pathways 1

We assessed the provider against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

The service is a campus. People were supported in a mix of shared houses and single accommodation within Adult Pathways 1 which is a registered location within the David Lewis Centre. There were various amenities on the site including day services, a petting farm, leisure and sports facilities, a café and a shop.

However, the provider ensured people were involved in the local communities beyond the location. The model of care meant people had lots of opportunities to gain employment, learn new skills and become more independent.

People had direct access to health specialists provided by an inhouse team including social workers, healthcare specialists and a nursing team.

At the last assessment the rating was requires improvement and there were breaches of legal regulation with regards to consent, safe care and treatment and good governance. We undertook this assessment to check improvements had been made. We found improvements had been made, the provider was no longer in breach of legal regulation, and the overall rating has changed to good.

The provider demonstrated a genuine commitment to improving the lives of people who lived within Adult Pathways 1. A multitude of opportunities were available to support people to engage in leisure activities, paid work and volunteering and to enable people to influence decisions made by the provider. The provider was making extensive changes to the campus environment which aimed to reduce the number of large, shared accommodation buildings and create smaller and more domestic style households as well as single occupancy accommodation where this best met a person’s needs.

Staff were extremely knowledgeable about peoples care needs and received high quality training which was designed and partly delivered by people who used the service and their families. This included the mandatory training requirement of staff around the needs of people with a learning disability and autism. People directly contributed to and influenced the recruitment and selection of staff who worked at the service.

Staff felt well supported by the entire leadership team. Staff were engaged and spoke with pride about working at the service.

People were involved in developing and reviewing their care plan. Family members and other professionals were consulted as part of this process when this was appropriate. The provider demonstrated they worked in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Care plans reflected current best practice in how to support people with a learning disability and autistic people safely and effectively. However, some improvements were identified regarding the quality and consistency of information within care plans and risk assessments and to ensure peoples personal and healthcare outcomes were clearly defined and effectively monitored.

Systems were in place to keep people safe from the risk of abuse and to learn lessons from any incidents which occurred. The provider worked positively with other agencies.

People were supported to attend medical appointments when needed and medicines were administered safely. Systems were in place to ensure people did not receive additional medication without a clear reason. The administration of additional medicines was closely monitored by the management team and professionals involved in people’s care.