Sturts Community Trust

Updated 24 June 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was undertaken by two 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 nine ‘supported living’ settings, so 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 March 2021 and ended on 15 April 2021. We visited the office location on 17 March 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection, including feedback from local authority professionals. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people who used the service and five relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with eleven members of staff including the nominated individual, the two registered managers, four other managers and senior staff, and five care staff. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. These included three people’s care records, four people’s medication records, and three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We also reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including training records and policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 24 June 2021

About the service

Sturts Community Trust is part of the Sturts Farm Camphill Community. It provides care and support to working age adults with a learning disability or autism, living in several shared supported living houses. These are located on Sturts Farm and in West Moors. People using the service have differing levels of need for staff support. Some of the houses have waking night staff or staff who sleep in. Some staff live in the shared houses as part of the Sturts Farm community. The service has offices at Sturts Farm.

Not everyone who uses the service receives 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, 23 people were receiving personal care from the service.

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

People and relatives liked the service and felt safe there. They described staff as kind and caring. People were encouraged towards independence. They were happy with the way risks were managed. There were enough staff on duty, who understood people’s support needs and managed their medicines safely.

The provider had an up to date infection prevention and control policy. They had introduced procedures to manage the risks COVID-19 posed to everyone connected with the service. Staff had access to the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) and were using this correctly.

People, relatives and staff expressed confidence in the leadership of the service. They were positive about communication. Managers worked closely with people and staff, who said they found them approachable. People’s and staff’s individuality, including their equality characteristics, were respected.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support:

• The model of care and setting maximised people’s choice, control and independence. People made choices about all aspects of their lives. Staff fostered their independence. People were encouraged to take responsibility for different aspects of life on the farm, which were meaningful and important to them.

Right care:

• Care was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. Care and support were provided in a way that met people’s individual needs and wishes. Staff treated people with respect. People’s equality and human rights were upheld.

Right culture:

• The ethos of the service and the values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensured people using the service led confident, inclusive and empowered lives. People valued being part of the Sturts Farm community. There was an emphasis on links with and service to the local community, for example through the provision of free school meals.

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 28 December 2018).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the culture and management of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has not changed. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report. The provider was aware of the risks and its action to mitigate them had been effective.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Sturts Community Trust on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.