Nugent Community Choices

Nugent Community Choices is part of Nugent Care, a charitable organisation who provide care and education to vulnerable children, young people and adults through their schools, care homes and community based services. Nugent Community Services provides care and support to people living in 'supported living' settings located in Wigan, Liverpool and Sefton so that they can live as independently as possible. The service can currently support up to 29 people across 9 properties. 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. At the time of the inspection, 8 people were in receipt of personal care and were included in the inspection.

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

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support

Although people received their medicines as prescribed, record keeping and oversight of medicines management required improvement. The service and its staff supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence. People had control over their own lives. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life. People were supported to pursue their interests and achieve their goals. Staff supported people to take part in activities in their local area and to pursue voluntary employment in areas of interest. Staff supported people with their health and wellbeing, including attending medical appointments.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care from staff who knew them well and how they wished to be supported. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff received training in how to identify abuse and report safeguarding concerns and worked with other agencies and professionals to ensure and maintain people’s safety. The service deployed enough staff to provide planned care and keep people safe. The provider had faced some recruitment challenges, with agency staff currently being used to cover any shortfalls. Staff understood people’s cultural needs and promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs.

Right Culture

Systems and processes to assess the quality and safety of the support provided, had not always identified shortfalls. Training records showed some staff had yet to complete all sessions the provider deemed mandatory and role essential. However, staff reported enough training was provided to ensure they could meet the needs of the people they supported. Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised to ensure people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing. Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals through reviews, surveys and ongoing discussion.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 7 April 2022 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and to provide a rating.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to the management of medicines and audit and governance processes at this inspection. We have also made a recommendation about staff training.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.