In Caring Hands St Austell

The service is also a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to some people, who use the respite service, when they are living at home in the community. At the time of this inspection three people were using the respite service and two people the domiciliary care service.

Care plans were accurate and kept under regular review, with the involvement of the person and their family. They provided staff with comprehensive guidance to ensure people's needs were met. Risks were identified and staff had clear instructions to help them support people to reduce the risk of avoidable harm.

Staff were recruited safely. The service had continued to recruit throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure there were enough staff to cover for sickness or for staff who needed to shield or self-isolate. Staff were supported by a system of induction, training, supervisions, appraisals and staff meetings. Staff were appropriately trained, and their competency regularly checked, to administer people's medicines and carry out specific tasks to ensure people's complex health needs were met.

Cleaning and infection control procedures had been updated in line with COVID-19 guidance to help protect people, visitors and staff from the risk of infection. Bedrooms were deep cleaned between each respite stay. Government guidance about COVID-19 testing for people, staff and visitors was being followed.

People's relatives and staff told us management were approachable and they listened to them when they had any concerns or ideas. All feedback was used to make continuous improvements to the service.

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.

This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

The Right support: The model of care and setting maximised people's choice, control and independence. Staff supported people to make choices about their daily lives and engage in activities that they enjoyed and promoted their independence.

Right care: People received good quality person-centred care that promoted their dignity, privacy and human rights. Each person had a member of staff specifically allocated to support them for each shift during their respite stay. Staff knew people well and understood their individual ways of communicating which meant people received care that was individualised to their needs and wishes.

Right culture: While on respite stay people lived in a service where the ethos, values, attitudes of the management team and care staff ensured people led confident, inclusive and empowered lives. Staff created an environment that inspired people to understand and achieve their goals and ambitions.