This inspection took place on 14 December 2018.

Progressive Support is an organisation which provides support to people living in the community. At the time of our inspection, four people were in receipt of the regulated activity ‘personal care.’ There were other people using the service, however they were not in receipt of any regulated activity.

This service provides care and support to people living in ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live in their own home 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 is the registered providers first inspection since they moved locations.

There was not a registered manager in post.

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.

Additionally, we had not been sent a PIR from the registered provider when we requested one.

There were audits in place which checked service provision. We saw, in the most part, these audits were robust and had identified when improvement was needed. There were some issues discussed during our inspection regarding audits and their frequency and effectiveness. We have made a recommendation regarding this.

Everyone we spoke with said they felt safe receiving support from Progressive Support.

Medication was safely managed for people in their homes. Staff were only permitted to administer medication to people once they had been trained in the principles of medication administration and had completed a competency test.

Risk assessments were in place for each person and contained relevant and up to date information. Risk assessments contained information around what action the staff needed to take in order to keep people safe.

There were systems and processes in place to ensure that people were protected from potential harm and abuse. Staff we spoke with described the action they would take if they felt that abuse had occurred, and this included reporting the abuse to their line manager, or whistleblowing to external organisations such as CQC, the Local Authority or the police.

People were supported to ensure regular maintenance took place for their homes.

Staff were recruited safely. Each staff member had two references in place in their files and there was evidence that a Disclosure and Baring Service (DBS) check had taken place.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was available for all staff to use. Staff we spoke with confirmed there were gloves and aprons in people’s homes and an additional stock of these were kept in the registered office for their use.

There was a log of incident and accidents which was kept securely at the registered office. Each time an incident or accident occurred the manager analysed the incident in detail from the information provided by staff which was recorded on the incident form.

There was enough staff employed by the service to cover the support hours people needed.

Staff confirmed they had regular supervision with their line manager. Records relating to staff training and supervision were however not always clear and consistent, even though they had taken place. We discussed this at the time with the manager. The manager informed us they would take action and update these records.

Capacity was appropriately assessed. Records clearly indicated where people had provided their consent to receive care and support from Progressive Support and in other instances decisions were appropriately made in the persons ‘best interest’ and in the least restrictive way as possible.

People confirmed they were supported with their nutr