Woodseats and Norton

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.

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.

Right Care: People received kind and compassionate care. People and relatives told us support was provided safely. Staff understood how to protect and promote people's privacy and dignity. Staff varied their approach to working and communicating with people and demonstrated an understanding of people's preferred way of communication. People's medicines were managed safely and we observed peoples as required (PRN) medication was reviewed regularly. When accidents and incidents occurred information was recorded accurately and later analysed by registered managers to identify any trends or areas of staff practice which could develop.

Right Culture: Staff feedback on working in partnership with the provider was positive and staff felt they were supported by a strong management team. Two registered managers were in post one [registered manager 1] to oversee the management of the Woodseats service and the other [registered manager 2] to oversee the management of the Norton service. They told us they tried to arrange absences from work to ensure there was always a registered manager across both services. The provider had a robust auditing system in place and registered managers evidenced consistent checks and oversight of practice in all areas. In some areas this had not always been captured in an audit template; however, we reviewed evidence of data being collected and analysed and checks being completed.

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