21 November 2022
During a routine inspection
Durham & Sunderland Supported Living provides personal care to people living in supported living services. This service primarily offers support to adults with learning disabilities or autistic people. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 98 people in supported living settings across County Durham, Sunderland and Gateshead.
Before this inspection, the provider applied to CQC to register the supported living services in Gateshead as a separate service. During this inspection CQC approved this application. Gateshead services were inspected as part of this inspection, so the findings and overall rating for this service also apply to the newly registered Gateshead Supported Living service (https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-14623451556).
People’s experience of using this 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 assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Right support
Staff focused on people's strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful life. The service worked with people to plan for when they experienced periods of distress, so their freedoms were restricted only if there was no alternative. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. 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 care
Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. Staff understood and respected people's religious and cultural needs and supported them accordingly. People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people's privacy and dignity. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe.
People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs. People could take part in activities and pursue interests that were tailored to them. Staff supported people to try new activities that enhanced and enriched their lives. Staff and people co-operated to assess risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.
Right culture
People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management team and staff. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing. Staff placed people's wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff valued and acted upon people's views. People's quality of life was enhanced by the service's culture of improvement and inclusivity.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 19 July 2021) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.
You can read the report from our last inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Durham & Sunderland Supported Living on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.