Caretech Community Services Ltd (East Anglia)

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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. Staff were also discouraged from wearing anything that suggested they were care staff when coming and going with people. This was to not identify the service as a place where people received care and support.

Staff understood what safeguarding meant for each person and how to protect them from the risk of harm. Staff administered and managed people's medicines safely. Staff were recruited in a safe way and checks were undertaken to make sure staff were suitable to work with people. Staff supported people to take risks in support of their rights where this was safe. Lessons were learned when things went wrong. There were systems in place to promote good hygiene practice.

Staff were trained according to people's assessed needs. Staff were supported with regular mentoring and supervision; this helped ensure people's care was effective. The staff team worked well with others involved in people's care. People were supported to be independent, access health care services and to eat and drink healthily. 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. Where people had been assessed as lacking mental capacity legal restrictions had been applied for, agreed and put in place as consent for staff.

Staff supported people with kindness and showed compassion when caring for and supporting people. People's privacy and dignity was promoted. People were supported by an advocate who spoke up on the person's behalf. Records were kept confidential.

People lived full, independent, fulfilling and meaningful lives by accessing the community and having the social stimulation they needed. People's concerns were acted on before they became a complaint. The

complaints system was accessible, open and identified improvements which were acted on. Systems were in place should people need support in an emergency or end of life care.

The registered manager was aware of their responsibilities in managing the service and when they needed to report events such as safeguarding to us. Oversight, governance and quality assurance of the service was effective. People had a say in how the service was run and how improvements were made. The provider and registered manager worked well with others to provide joined up care. Staff were supported in their role and received feedback in a positive way. The registered manager was approachable which meant people, relatives and staff being more open, leading to better quality care.

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.

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