This was an announced inspection carried out on 8 November 2016.

Liberty Lodge Limited (the service) is the name of a house at 43 Radnor Park Crescent in Folkestone. It is also the name of a company that rents the house from a landlord and which provides support for the four people who live in the service. Each person has a tenancy agreement that explains their right to have their own bed-sitting room. The service is registered to provide support for people of all ages including people who need support due to misusing drugs and alcohol, a learning disability, sensory needs or mental health issues. In our report we refer to the people who live in the service as being, 'tenants'.

The company was owned and operated by two directors. One of them was the managing director and one of them was also the 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. In our report when we are speaking about both the managing director and the registered manager we refer to them as being, ‘the registered persons’.

Staff knew how to respond to any concerns that might arise so that tenants were kept safe from abuse. Tenants had been helped to avoid the risk of accidents and they had been supported to manage their medicines safely. There were enough staff to provide tenants with the support they needed and background checks had been completed before new staff had been appointed.

Staff had received training and guidance and they knew how to support tenants in the right way. Tenants had been assisted to plan and prepare their own meals and they had been supported to receive all of the healthcare assistance they needed.

Staff had ensured that tenants’ rights were respected by helping them to make decisions for themselves. In addition, the registered persons had taken the necessary steps to ensure that people only received lawful care that respected their rights.

Tenants were treated with kindness, compassion and respect. Staff recognised tenants’ right to privacy and promoted their dignity. Confidential information was kept private.

Tenants had been consulted about the support they wanted to receive and they had been given all of the assistance and encouragement they needed to be as independent as possible. Tenants had been supported to pursue their work commitments, hobbies and interests. There was a system for quickly and fairly resolving complaints.

Tenants had been fully consulted about how best to develop the service. Quality checks had been regularly completed to ensure that tenants reliably received all of the support they needed. Staff were supported to speak out if they had any concerns, good team work was promoted and tenants had benefited from staff acting upon good practice guidance.

At the time of our inspection, there were three people living in the house who required support from the staff regarding their personal care. We spoke with all three people and they were positive about the care they received.

The people we spoke with said they had many interests and things to do, and told us what they needed support with. We saw that the care records included people's views and the choices they had made. The staff we spoke with were aware of people's preferences and needs. A relative we spoke to told us that “communication is very good between the staff”.

The people we spoke with said they would go to staff if they had any problems, concerns or worries at any time. They told us that the staff were always friendly and supported them well.

Whilst no formal meetings took place, there were informal gatherings in the house each day, where topical discussions took place about anything that people wanted to raise. We saw that a range of decisions had been made by involving and consulting people in this way.

We found that there were sufficient staff on duty, who had a range of experience and qualifications relevant to supporting people’s needs. Staff had regular training and supervision.

The service had processes in place to monitor the quality of care it provided, and to identify and respond to any areas of concern.