United Response-North Tyneside DCA

Updated 1 September 2022

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 two inspectors and one 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 12 '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.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We announced the inspection a few days in advance to ensure that people would give us permission to visit them in their homes. Before we visited the supported living settings, we discussed infection control processes with reference to COVID-19 and followed government guidance.

Inspection activity started on 13 July 2022 and ended on 26 July 2022. We visited people in their homes and the location’s office on 20 July 2022.

What we did before the 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 contacted two local authority commissioners and safeguarding teams who worked with the provider and also Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited the registered office and met with the registered manager. On the same day, we visited the community centre in which the registered office is based to attend a music session, which people using the service attended. On another day we visited people in their own homes. In total we spoke with four people and contacted six relatives via telephone to gather their views. We spoke with seven support staff, a team manager and a service manager.

We contacted 138 staff members via email to gather feedback and 14 staff members responded.

We reviewed four people’s care and medicine records. We looked at four staff records in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service and quality monitoring systems.

We contacted a learning disability community nurse who was also the STOMP lead. STOMP stands for ‘Stopping over medication of people with a learning disability, autism or both’. We also contacted another member of the STOMP team and five social workers to gather feedback.

Updated 1 September 2022

About the service

United Response-North Tyneside DCA is registered both as a domiciliary care agency and a supported living service. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes, and care and support to people with a learning disability or who are autistic, living in a 'supported living' setting, so they can live as independently as possible.

People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual arrangements. The CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people's care and support.

Not everyone using the service received a regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people who are provided with the regulated activity of 'personal care', for example which includes help with tasks such as personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. There were 32 people using the service for personal care and they lived in 12 supported living settings.

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 underpinning principles of “Right support, right care, right culture".

Right support:

The model of care and settings maximised people's choice, control and independence 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 with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcome.

People were supported by staff to pursue their interests.

Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Cleaning and infection control procedures were in line with COVID-19 guidance, to help protect people, visitors and staff from the risk of infection. Government guidance about COVID-19 testing staff was enhanced during the inspection.

Right care:

People received good quality person-centred care that promoted their dignity, privacy and human rights.

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 safely recruited and appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Staff were well supported.

Right culture:

The ethos, values, and attitudes of management and care staff ensured people led confident, inclusive and empowered lives. People and those important to them, including advocates, were involved in planning their care.

Staff 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

This service was registered with us on 19 November 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support, right care, right culture and because the service had not been previously inspected since registering with the CQC.

Follow up

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