About the service: Aurora Options is a supported living service which provides care for people with learning disabilities living in the boroughs of Lewisham, Southwark and Bexley. This service provides care and support to people so they can live in their own homes as independently as possible. People's care and housing is provided under separate agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living and so this inspection looked at people's personal care and support. On the day of the inspection 57 people were using the service.

What life is like for people using this service:

• At this inspection we found that the service was outstanding in empowering people to have as much control over their lives as possible and to achieve their maximum potential.

• People’ care was consistently personalised to their need. During our inspection, we found multiple examples to demonstrate the staff and management team were passionate about providing an innovative and excellent service.

• Relatives felt the care was highly personalised and that the staff team worked well to deliver an excellent level of care. People were set realistic goals to improve their independence and they were supported by staff to achieve key outcomes.

• People were educated on making healthy lifestyle choices for themselves and supported to maintain good health. Staff supported people to access healthcare services and liaised with health professionals promptly when required.

• People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

• People were empowered to make day-to-day decisions for themselves and to make their own choices about how they would like to live their lives including where they lived and people they lived with.

• The service had a strong sense of promoting social inclusion and people were supported to be active members of their communities. Staff understood the Equality Act and empowered people to explore their diversities whilst supporting them to maintain their own safety.

• The service had established good links in the local community and had worked in partnership with key organisations including local authorities and other agencies that provided social care services to improve people's opportunities and experiences.

• The service had an open approach to feedback and encouraged people and staff to be actively involved in service development. Where people provided feedback about the service these were acted upon to improve the service delivery and enhance people’s experiences. The provider had a robust quality assurance system in place and lessons learnt from each audits or accident and incidents were used to continuously develop the service.

• There was a registered manager in post who understood their role and responsibilities and at the same time empowered and developed staff. Leaders and managers were accountable for their staff and recognised the importance of their role. Staff understood their individual roles, responsivities and the contributions they made to the service.

More information is in detailed findings below.

Rating at last inspection: Good (Report published 10 May 2016)

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the last inspection rating. At this inspection we found the provider had improved the service to achieve an outstanding rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit in line with our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is r

Aurora Options is a supported living service which provides care for people with learning disabilities living in the boroughs of Lewisham, Southwark and Bexley. The provider also runs two care homes in Lewisham.

The service was last inspected on 17 July 2014. All of the regulations we looked at were met.

The service has a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The provider’s safeguarding policies and procedures helped to protect people who were supported by Aurora Options. People felt able to raise concerns about their safety with staff who were clear on the action they would take to protect people.

Risks were assessed and managed so people’s activities were not restricted unnecessarily.

People were supported to have their medicines as prescribed and there were safe arrangements for managing them.

Staff were recruited safely and there were enough to provide flexible support. They were trained and supported to assist people appropriately and in line with their individual needs.

Staff were trained in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and understood the need to gain informed consent for peoples’ care and support. They were aware that best interests meetings were required in circumstances when this was not possible.

People were supported to prepare meals which met their needs. People’s health care needs were addressed and the staff team had worked effectively with health professionals to achieve good outcomes for people whose needs increased.

People told us they found the staff who supported them were caring and they got on well with them. We observed respectful interactions between people and staff. People were encouraged to be as independent as possible.

People had a good quality of life as they took part in a range of activities they enjoyed and promoted their inclusion in the community. People were involved in their care planning and reviews. The plans were person centred and reflected people’s own views.

People were able to complain and raise issues about changes they would like to be made to their service. As well as the complaints procedure there were several routes to enable them to do so, including a service user involvement group, annual surveys and tenants’ meetings.

The provider made a series of checks and audits to manage quality in the service. They monitored events in the service and promoted person centred care. There were effective working arrangements with other organisations and Aurora Options encouraged coordinated support for people.