West Midlands and Wiltshire PBS Service

About the service

West Midlands and Wiltshire PBS Service is a supported living service for autistic people and people with learning disabilities. People had their own individual houses/bungalows with staff on site, providing 24 hour care and support. At the time of the inspection, the service had 4 properties and there were 5 people using the service. All the properties were in keeping with neighbouring properties with access to local amenities and transport.

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:

People's support focused on them having opportunities to gain new skills and become more independent. People were encouraged to take part in activities they wanted to. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. People led meaningful lives which promoted their choice, control and independence. Support was person-centred, appropriate and inclusive. People were supported safely with their medicines. People’s nutritional needs were being met. There were comprehensive systems in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality of care being provided.

Right Care:

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff respected and protected people's privacy and dignity and understood and responded to people’s individual needs. The service had processes in place to report abuse and keep people safe. Staff were aware of their legal responsibilities in reporting abuse. Identified risks to people were assessed and reviewed regularly to minimise the risk of potential harm. Staff had received appropriate training to support them effectively in their role. The service had enough, safely recruited, staff to meet people's needs. People were encouraged to be involved in developing their support and care plans; that were reviewed regularly and reflected peoples’ choices and promoted their wellbeing.

Right Culture:

People received good quality care and were supported by staff who understood their strengths. Staff knew people well and were responsive to their needs. People and their families were supported and encouraged to work with staff to develop the service, ensuring it remained focused on the person’s needs. Staff spoke passionately about the people they supported. The service’s ethos was ‘Transforming Care’ with the aim to improve the lives of people living with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

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.

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 first registered with us on 25 August 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to a closed culture. A closed culture is a poor culture in a health or care service that increases the risk of harm to people. As this was also the service’s first inspection since it’s registration, we reviewed all the key questions, is the service Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.