This was SeeAbility Oxfordshire Support Service’s first inspection since registering in January 2018. This is the first time the service has been rated requires improvement

SeeAbility Oxfordshire Support Service offers support for up to six adults in Banbury and up to six adults in Bicester. 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. People had a range of needs, including autism and learning disabilities. The service offered people support twenty-four hours a day to live in their own bungalows which enabled them to have space but to also have people around them as and when they wanted this. At the time of the inspection there were nine people using the service.

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.

There was 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.

There were some systems in place to ensure people safely received their medicines. However, due to recording errors and a lack of regular medicine audits, we could not be confident that people always received their medicines correctly.

There were various audits and monitoring checks in place. However, some audits had not been recorded and did not always effectively identify where improvements needed to be made.

These were breaches of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These related to safe care and treatment and good governance (Regulation 12 and 17). You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

We received feedback from one person using the service and overall, they spoke positively about the support they received, although said they wished they could make friends with the other people living in the service. We observed that staff treated people with kindness, respect and promoted people's right to privacy.

Relatives told us they were happy with how the move to this new service had been for their family members. The service had made detailed plans for each person and their needs were assessed to ensure the move was at the person’s own pace and accessible communication was used to ensure people could visually see where they were moving to and what to expect. Risks to people's wellbeing had been assessed and planned for along with support plans and guidance on how best to support people.

We received mixed views from the staff team about working at the service. Some told us they were supported and received training, whilst others said the service needed more monitoring, they were not always listened to and people using the service needed more to do with their time.

Social care professionals told us they recognised the service was new and there had been some problems during the first few months with the various changes of staff but that people were settling in and communication was good between the staff team and social care professionals.

There were procedures designed to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and people confirmed they felt safe using the service. 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's health and nutritional needs were assess