Liberty Centre

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 the service is registered for people who have a learning disability and/or who are autistic. The service met this guidance.

The care plans were well written and had recently been reviewed. They included information about how to support the people and included their views about the support they wanted. The care plans were detailed, person-centred and easy for staff to follow. People including their relatives, were listened to and involved in planning their care.

Risk assessments for people were not always comprehensive. Risks to people’s health and safety were not consistently assessed, and appropriate action was not always taken to mitigate identified risks. Risks identified to people such as choking, safe use of kitchen, and management of pacemaker were not managed. However, we found no evidence that people were harmed. Following our recommendations, the provider added further details to relevant risk assessments and made referrals to Speech and Language Therapy (SALT).

People felt the staff treated them with respect and kindness and maintained their dignity when providing support. Staff completed an induction at the beginning of their employment and received ongoing support through training and supervision. Staff reported having a positive relationship with the provider and felt communication was effective.

The service had enough staff employed to keep people safe. Recruitment processes were robust and there were enough staff working at the service to support people safely. Staff were provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect people from the risk infection. Staff undertook various trainings, but they had not completed learning disability training since January 2023. This was also addressed promptly by the provider, and all the staff completed their learning disability training the very next day following our visit.

Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service were in place but they were not effective.