20 November 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Deaconstar Limited provides personal care and support to people living in ‘supported living' settings across Bishop Auckland, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. The service provides support to people with a learning disability and/or autism. At the time of our inspection there were 18 people using the service.
People’s experience of the service and what we found:
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 assessment and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Right Support:
Medicines were given safely but some systems needed review to ensure best practice was always followed. We have made a recommendation about medicines. 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. Some documents relating to people’s mental capacity required update and the registered manager had contacted relevant parties to start this process. The service had plans and guidance to support people with identified risks. Care was person centred and promoted choice and independence. People were supported to achieve positive outcomes. People were supported by staff who received an induction and ongoing training.
Right Care:
People received kind and compassionate care. Feedback from people and their relatives was all positive. Some relatives told us staffing had improved and people had more consistent staff teams. Staff knew people well, understood and responded to their individual needs. Staff promoted and respected people's right to privacy, dignity, and respect. Staff knew how to protect people from the risk of harm and abuse. People were fully supported to live a life of their choosing and to increase their independence.
Right Culture:
The registered manager listened to concerns and promoted a positive culture that was person-centred, open, and inclusive. Concerns and complaints were listened and responded to. Staff were supported and given opportunities to feedback about the service. Quality assurance processes enabled continuous improvement. As the registered manager had not been in post long some systems and processes were still in development, but plans were in place and being acted on. There was a learning culture and learning was shared. There was good communication with partner agencies to support people’s health and wellbeing.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was Good (published 6 March 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was based on the length of times since we last inspected.
We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Deaconstar Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Recommendations
We have made a recommendation in the safe key question in relation to medicines management. Please see this section for further details.
Follow Up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.