Tony Long House

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and 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 supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. We identified the service was working in line with this guidance.

The service had consistent experienced leaders and staff who provided support to people both at the service and with accessing the community. Staff received good training which supported them to do their jobs well. The service was accessible for people and adaptations had been made, such as ceiling hoists to ensure people’s needs were met. Professionals and relatives were involved in people’s support and people’s wishes for their future had been written in care and support plans.

People had support plans which reflected their individual needs. People were supported to take their medicines safely, although we identified further improvement were needed to strengthen ‘as and when’ (PRN) medicines. The registered manager acted during the assessment to make improvements. Feedback from professionals working with the service was positive about how the service worked with them to meet people’s needs.

People and their relatives knew who they could speak with and raise concerns. Governance systems were effective in identifying areas for improvement and ensuring these were followed through. Staff felt able to speak openly and transparently with leaders and believed action would be taken as a result. Some staff gave example of when this had happened.