Community Prospects

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Care: People and their relatives told us they felt supported by staff in a kind, caring and dignified way. People's differences were respected by staff and they had undertaken relevant training to effectively support people. People told us that the care they received was consistent and that staff knew them well. Service managers tried to match people with carers of their choice wherever possible. Kitchen areas were always accessible to people and they were able to choose their meals with appropriate support from staff. People's right to privacy was respected and staff encouraged people to regularly provide feedback about the care provided. Care plans were personalised and included information on people's healthcare needs, preferences, challenges and hobbies. People's preferences and abilities in relation to oral care were recorded clearly in care plans. Services were located in residential streets and there were no outward signs to differentiate them from neighbouring properties.

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.

Right Culture: The culture of the service was open, inclusive and empowered people to live independent lives. The service was exceptionally well-led from the top and feedback from people, their relatives, staff, healthcare professionals and the systems in place reflected this. People and their relatives felt their ideas and concerns would be listened to by management. People told us they felt that staff had helped them become more confident and independent. Management had undertaken regular audits to look at ways of improving the service and identifying issues. Staff were complimentary about the management of the service, felt valued and told us they were able to raise concerns with the manager. Staff were encouraged by management to undertake training and were encouraged to follow a career path should they wish to. Management had worked exceptionally closely with healthcare professionals to achieve positive outcomes for people. This included setting up a Proactive Community for people and chaired by people. Management had engaged people who used the service and staff in different projects to tackle current healthcare challenges, such as obesity affecting people with learning disabilities and working with external organisations to create a healthy eating mobile phone application. People who used the service were actively encouraged to attend and contribute to staff training sessions.