ASL

The agency provides a service to younger adults, older people, people living with dementia, people with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder and people with a mental health diagnosis. They also provide care to people who misuse drugs and alcohol, people with an eating disorder, people with a physical disability or sensory impairment. The service provides care to 60 people, at the time of the inspection nineteen of these people received the regulated activity of personal care, therefore only their care was included within the scope of this inspection.

The service had a registered manager this is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Staff had undertaken relevant safeguarding training and understood their role to protect people from the risk of abuse. Potential risks to people had been identified, assessed and measures were in place to minimise the risk of their occurrence. People received their medicines from competent, trained staff. Relevant processes and procedures were in place to ensure people's medicines were managed safely. People were protected from the risk of acquiring an infection. Processes were in place to review incidents and to identify any changes or learning required for people.

The provider operated robust recruitment procedures to ensure staff's suitability to work with people. There were sufficient staff numbers of staff deployed to meet people's needs and flexibility if people required additional care. Staff underwent an induction to their role and received on-going training appropriate to their role. Most staff had also achieved a professional qualification in social care.

Staff completed pre-admission assessments with people to determine if they could meet the person's care needs. Staff had access to information about current standards, legislation and guidance to enable them to provide people with effective care.

Staff worked with a range of other statutory and non-statutory agencies in the provision of people's care. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and to have access to healthcare services. People were supported where required to ensure they ate and drank sufficient for their needs.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People reported they enjoyed positive, kind relationships with staff. Staff understood how to build relationships with people and spent time with them. People were encouraged to participate in making decisions about their care. People's privacy and dignity were respected and promoted in the provision of their care.

People reported the service was responsive to their needs. People had care and support plans in place that identified their care needs and how these were to be met. Staff understood people's care needs. Staff recognised that people living with a mental illness could find it more difficult to have a structure to their day or might experience social isolation and action had been taken to address this. People were provided with opportunities to participate in a range of activities, including in their local community. Staff had worked with other agencies to ensure people nearing the end of their life received appropriate care.

The registered manager promoted an open culture where people and staff felt able to speak to them about any issues as they arose. There was a clear management structure in place. Staff had a clear understanding of their role and individual responsibilities. People were provided with information about how to make a complaint. Any complaints received were logged and investigated in order to identify any areas of improvement for people.

People were very involved with the service. They worked jointly with staff on mental health awareness initiatives in the local community, fund raising and had input into the service via the service user representative and service improvement plan.

People their relatives and professionals had been sent a quality assurance survey to ask their views on the service and the responses showed there was a high degree of satisfaction. The registered manager and the operations manager also regularly audited the service in order to identify potential areas for improvement.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found