About the service The Porthouse is a supported living service providing 24-hour personal care and support for up to five young adults with learning disabilities and autism. At the time of our inspection two people were using the service.
The service had been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service received planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were happy living at The Porthouse. Staff treated people with kindness and respect and the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. Relatives told us their communication with staff was good and they felt involved in their family members care. Staff had received the training and had the support they needed to understand and meet people’s needs.
Staff helped people work towards their goals and encouraged people to engage in the activities they wanted to do. They supported people to learn new skills and be as independent as they were able to be. Staff helped people keep in contact with their family and friends.
Staff knew how to keep people safe and used different ways to communicate with people to find out how they were feeling and the choices they wanted to make. Care records helped staff know what was important to people and how they wanted to be supported. Information was available for people in a way they could understand.
Managers and staff made sure people were asked their views about how the service was run and what staff could do to make things better. 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.
Staff supported people to attend health care appointments and made sure heath care professionals knew how to support people during treatment. Staff made sure people received their medicine in a safe way.
Managers and staff knew how to record and report concerns, this included any safeguarding concerns. When an incident or accident happened, the reason was investigated and changes were made to make things better for people.
The provider had a range of audits in place to make sure people were safe and drive improvement. When things had gone wrong lessons were learned and this was shared with staff.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
We did not give the service a rating at our last inspection (05 June 2019). This was because there was insufficient evidence available to make a judgement and award a rating.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.