This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. This service also provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, 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.

Happy Futures Supporting People in North Yorkshire provides a service to people with a learning disability, autistic spectrum disorder or people living with mental health needs.

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.

We inspected this service on 10 and 25 October 2017. The inspection was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice of our inspection, because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in the location’s office when we visited.

This was our first inspection of this service since it registered at a new location in December 2015. At the time of our inspection the service supported 11 people with the regulated activity personal care. These people lived in their own homes in and around Scarborough including a number of people who lived in supported living bungalows where one to one care and support was provided for part or all of the day.

The service had 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.

During the inspection, we identified the service provided was outstanding. We found staff were extremely responsive to people’s needs. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the outstanding person-centred care and support staff provided. We found staff were passionate, enthusiastic and committed to understanding people’s needs and to providing high quality person-centred care to improve people’s quality of life.

People who used the service received support to engage in a very wide range of activities and to pursue their hobbies and interests. The provider had developed a ‘skills centre’ which provided a fantastic resource for people to use and enjoy. We saw people clearly benefited from the opportunities on offer to pursue meaningful activities including support to access employment and develop their CV’s.

The service was extremely well-led. The provider and management were committed and passionate about providing outstanding care and support. There was culture of continually learning and developing the service. Staff and people who used the service felt valued and there was an open and inclusive approach to how the service was led. The provider was an excellent role model and keen to learn, develop and implement best practice guidance and to share their knowledge with others.

There were effective systems in place to gather and respond to feedback. The provider valued people’s feedback and was clearly committed to listening and learning from people’s experiences of using the service to continually develop the care and support provided.

The service was safe. Staff received training on how to identify and respond to safeguarding concerns. Detailed risk management plans were in place to support staff to provide safe care and support and to minimise the risk of avoidable harm. Staff were skilled and experienced and used their knowledge of people’s needs to proactively identify and manage risks to pe