Welcome House - Gillingham Homes

People were supported to live independent lives, and staff empowered people to take positive risks, such as going on holiday and to manage their own medicines. Staff were recruited safely and received relevant training to their role. Staff demonstrated skills to support people and treated them respectfully.

People's needs were assessed and frequently reviewed. Staff encouraged people to follow a healthy diet that catered to their tastes, and people were enabled to prepare their own meals. People told us they chose the menu together. The registered manager used mealtimes as an opportunity to gather people's views and feedback in a relaxed manner as well as a social event.

People were supported by caring staff, and we saw people and staff interacting positively during the inspection. People were happy with talk to us and tell us about the service and the support they received. One person told us, "[Registered manager] is lovely, they are very helpful. All three of us are grateful to [registered manager]. We need prompting and helping. We are looked after properly."

People were supported to be independent, and to maintain relationships with friends and family. This was achieved by going out to meet their loved ones, or contact by phone and video technology. People were enabled to go out as they wished, this included attending groups, classes and coffee mornings.

People and their relatives were encouraged to feedback on the service, staff were available to assist them as needed. One person told us, "The staff are here if we have a query or question or if I need advice. They are quite helpful."

The service was led by a committed registered manager and team who were proud to work at the service. The registered manager told us, "I think we are a lovely service; we are good, we are proactive to service users' needs, we interact great, we are caring and understanding." People were actively involved in the running of the service and their voices were listened to. People were able to access healthcare when they

needed it.

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.

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.