Avon's House

Avon's House is a small service which provided personal care to five people living with a learning disability or autism at the time of this inspection. Two people lived at the service and three people used the service when they needed to as respite. People had their own bedrooms and shared facilities such as the kitchen, the bathrooms and the garden.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

People's experience of using this service and what we found:

People were positive about their care. One person told us, ''I love it at Avon's House because it is such a great place. The staff are all very kind, polite and caring.''

The service applied the principles and values of Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These ensure that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes that include control, choice and independence. The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support by promoting choice and control, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

People were supported with kindness, respect and compassion by a staff team who had gotten to know people as individuals. There was a focus on people making choices about their support and the staff team promoted people to be as independent as possible. People received personalised care and were communicated to in their preferred communication methods.

People were supported to take part in a wide array of community-based activities and to take part in daily living skills in the home. Staff members encouraged people to try new things and to be involved in choosing how they spent their time. The manager and staff team had a passion for promoting people's involvement in the local community.

People were protected from harm and abuse in all areas including medicines and infection control, by systems put in place at the service. People had assessments in place which enabled them to take positive risks. There were enough trained and knowledgeable staff to support people safely and to enable people to

do what they wanted throughout the day.

People were positive about the way they were supported with food and drink, and how they were involved in cooking and preparing meals. People were supported to see health care professionals where this support was needed. People had access to a detailed complaints procedure which was available in accessible formats if people needed to make a complaint.

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.

The manager completed audits to monitor the quality of the service. However, the manager acknowledged that these did not always happen as regularly as the provider said they would. They manager told us that they would ensure that this was improved upon.

People and their relatives were encouraged to feed back about their care and support and were involved in service delivery at all levels. The manager and the staff team worked with other organisations to ensure good outcomes for people using the service. People were positive about the management of the service. The manager was passionate about putting plans in place to continue to improve the way people were supported.

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