Social Care Solutions Ltd (Herts & Bucks)

Social Care Solutions Herts and Bucks is a supported living service providing support to older people, and younger adults with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder who live within the supported living settings. At the time of the assessment the service was supporting 11 people, 7 people at one supported living setting and 4 people at another. This service provides care and support to people living in a 'supported living' setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this assessment looked at people's personal care and support.

At the time of this assessment, there was no registered manager in post. The area manager had recently submitted an application to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which remained under review. During our previous visit, one supported living service was led by an interim manager, while another had no active service manager due to absence. At this assessment, both service manager positions had been successfully appointed, providing greater stability in leadership to embed and sustain improvements with the support of the senior leadership team.

We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

The provider had begun to make early, positive progress in stabilising leadership, improving communication, and strengthening daily oversight. Relatives told us people are now more consistently supported, with current staffing levels not impacting essential care such as medicines or health appointments. Leaders had reduced reliance on agency staff and recruited additional permanent workers, including drivers, to improve continuity and ensure people’s commissioned hours are met more reliably. Safe recruitment practices had also been followed.

Training completion, induction quality and access to specialist learning had improved, and staff confirmed they now received more consistent supervision, knowledge sharing sessions and competency-based discussions that enhanced their confidence and capability.

Although the safe management of medicines showed improvement, we continued to find gaps in PRN protocols, inconsistencies between MARs and pharmacy labels, and 1 instance of expired topical medication, indicating that oversight and stock rotation processes were not yet fully reliable. Recent increases in audit frequency, enhanced training, and better organised medicines files, supported by positive feedback from relatives demonstrated that the service was progressing towards a safer and more consistent medicines management.

The provider had strengthened its approach to consent and best interest decision‑making, with relatives being routinely involved where people lacked capacity. However, further work was required to ensure all MCA/BI decisions are decision specific, clearly documented, and that any restrictive practices, have the appropriate MCA and best interest decision processes in place. Evidence showed MCA forms were sometimes combined across multiple decisions or required further detail, and not all restrictions were fully supported by completed best‑interest assessments.

Although progress was clear, governance improvements were not yet fully embedded. Gaps remained in the reliability of audits, record ‑keeping, induction compliance for agency staff, and the consistency with which staff follow risk management and care planning processes. The service remained in a period of transition; continued attention was needed to sustain improvements and ensure consistent, high-quality ‑quality care.

This service has been in Special Measures since 24 June 2025. The provider demonstrated improvements that have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.