St Anne's Community Services - North Tyneside DCA is rated Good overall, with Safe, Caring, and Well-Led all rated Good following an October 2023 inspection of this supported living service for 8 people with learning disabilities and/or autism. The service demonstrated strong person-centred care and effective partnership working, though governance gaps including lapsed audits, incomplete competency checks, irregular supervisions, and the absence of a registered manager were identified and addressed by the provider prior to inspection.
Concerns (6)
moderateSupervision / appraisal: “Staff supervisions had not happened as regularly as the provider's policies set out. The provider had identified this and made prompt changes to address this.”
moderate
Staff competency
: “Some competence checks had not been completed in line with the provider's processes. The provider had identified this and undertaken competence checks of staff.”
moderateGovernance: “Some audits and quality checks/visits had not always happened as planned but staff had consistently provided high levels of care to people.”
moderateLeadership: “There had been a lack of meaningful oversight at registered manager level in the months prior to our inspection, which the provider had identified and taken action on.”
minorIncident learning: “This system gave the functionality to learn lessons from local incidents and share more broadly. This had not happened as much as the provider would have expected.”
minorGovernance: “The provider had recognised notifications to CQC had not always been completed in a timely way and had put in place actions to rectify this.”
Strengths
· Staff demonstrated a strong knowledge of complex medicines arrangements and worked in line with STOMP principles to reduce unnecessary over-medication.
· Person-centred care plans were in place and actively reviewed, helping staff and external professionals understand people's needs in detail.
· Staff built strong bonds with people, celebrated their achievements, and proactively supported independence and aspirations.
· Effective partnership working with external health and social care professionals, including advocacy in multidisciplinary team meetings.
· Reduced reliance on agency staff through improved, more person-centred recruitment, resulting in greater continuity of care.
Quality-Statement breakdown (11)
safe: Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuse; Learning lessons when things go wrongGood
safe: Assessing risk, safety monitoring and managementGood
safe: Using medicines safelyGood
safe: Staffing and recruitmentGood
safe: Preventing and controlling infectionGood
caring: Ensuring people are well treated and supported; respecting equality and diversity; Respecting and promoting people's privacy, dignity and independenceGood
caring: Supporting people to express their views and be involved in making decisions about their careGood
well-led: Promoting a positive culture that is person-centred, open, inclusive and empowering; Engaging and involving people using the service, the public and staffGood
well-led: Managers and staff being clear about their roles, and understanding quality performance, risks and regulatory requirements; Continuous learning and improving careGood
well-led: Working in partnership with othersGood
well-led: How the provider understands and acts on the duty of candourGood