13 July 2023
During a routine inspection
County Care Independent Living Ltd provides care and support to people living in their own homes. The service is registered to support autistic people, people with learning disabilities, people with mental health needs, older people, people with a physical disability, and people with sensory impairment. The service is also registered to provide care for children, although was not supporting anyone under the age of 18 at the time of our inspection. In addition to support with personal care, the service provides outreach support, a Community Skills Project, and reablement support.
CQC only inspects services 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. The service supported 350 people at the time of our inspection, 14 of whom received support with personal care.
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.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
Right Support
Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, and supported people to enjoy fulfilling and meaningful lives. People were supported by staff to pursue their interests and to achieve their aspirations.
The service was exceptionally flexible to meet people’s needs. Staff went above and beyond expectations to ensure people received the support they needed to live their lives as they chose. People were supported to be active and valued members of their local community.
Managers and staff worked exceptionally hard to support people to learn new skills, increase their independence and ensure people did not become socially isolated. People were supported to take part in activities they enjoyed and to maintain relationships with their friends and families, which greatly enhanced their quality of life.
Staff supported people to maintain good health and the provider ensured important information was made available to people in formats that were accessible to them.
Staff had the induction, ongoing training and support they needed to carry out their roles. Regular one-to-one supervision provided opportunities for staff to discuss their performance and any further training needs.
Right care
The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Staff understood their responsibilities in protecting people from abuse and knew how to report any concerns they had. The provider’s recruitment procedures helped ensure only suitable staff were employed.
People received consistent care from staff who knew them well. Staff were kind and caring and responded to people’s individual needs. People were able to choose how they used their support, which maximised choice and control over their lives.
Right culture
Staff respected people’s individuality, protected their rights and advocated for them when necessary. There was a real focus on supporting and enabling people to be involved in their local communities.
The provider was committed to involving people who used the service, their families and staff in developing and improving the service. People and those important to them were involved in planning their care. The provider used any concerns or complaints received as opportunities to improve the service.
The provider’s governance arrangements were effective in keeping people safe and ensuring the care they received met their individual needs. Staff felt valued for the work they did and were well-supported in their roles. Managers and staff had established good working relationships with other professionals to ensure people received well-co-ordinated care and support.
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 29 November 2017).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.