Brandon Supported Living - Cornwall

Updated 22 July 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 3 inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in 59 ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there were 14 registered managers in post. The registered managers are known as locality managers and each have oversight for a small group of supported living settings.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because people are often out, and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

Inspection activity started on 6 July 2023 and ended on 12 July 2023. We visited the location’s office on 6 July 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We met with the area quality lead, the area performance lead and 11 locality managers. We visited 7 supported living settings where we met and spoke with 23 people, 22 support workers and a visiting external professional. We reviewed a range of records including 6 care plans, a range of individual Medicine Administration Records, 3 staff recruitment files, rotas, training and supervision records and policies and procedures. We also spoke with 7 relatives and a further 3 external professionals.

Updated 22 July 2023

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.

About the service

Brandon Supported Living - Cornwall is a domiciliary care agency providing care and support to people with a learning disability and autistic people in their own homes. Support can range from enabling people to access the community for a few hours a week, to 24-hour care and support for people living in supported living accommodation. The agency works across Cornwall and Plymouth and provides support to 211 people in 59 different supported living settings.

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 inspection 90 people were in receipt of personal care.

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

Right Support:

People had choice and control and were able to make decisions about their daily lives and how their care and support was organised.

The organisations values and ethos reflected the underlying principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

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.

The service worked with people to plan for when they experienced periods of distress. Staff knew how to support people at these times and had received the relevant training.

Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcome.

We have made a recommendation about the supporting information in place for some medicines in the report.

Right Care:

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. 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. Permanent staff were supported by bank staff and agency staff. Managers checked all staff had the relevant skills and experience.

Right Culture:

The service enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service. Staff valued and acted upon people’s views.

People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity. The organisation’s values were known by staff and these were reflected in their practice.

Managers ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect 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

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 3 February 2021).

At our last inspection we recommended that staff training needs were identified and met in a timely manner. At this inspection we found improvements had been made.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook a focused inspection. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Brandon Supported Living - Cornwall 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.