This was an announced inspection carried out on the 14 and 15 February 2017.

St Anne’s Community Services – Leeds DCA 2 is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. When we inspected the service there were 20 people receiving support in 7 properties. Each person held a tenancy with their landlord. The service is registered to support people who have a learning disability and people who live with autism.

The service had an administrative office in South Leeds.

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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager did not however, have overall management responsibility for all the supported living services.

At the last inspection in August and/ September 2015 we found the provider had breached one regulation associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in relation to medicines. We told the provider they needed to take action and we received a report from them setting out the action they would take to meet the regulations. At this inspection we found improvements had been made. with regard to this breach.

People who used the service were comfortable and relaxed in the company of staff and with those they lived with. People were supported to avoid the risk of accidents or harm and they were helped to manage their medicines safely. Health care needs were met well, with prompt referrals made when necessary.

There were enough staff to provide people with the support they needed and background checks had been completed before new staff had been appointed to ensure safe recruitment practice. Staff were able to tell us how they could recognise abuse and knew how to report it appropriately.

Staff felt well supported by the provider. They received appropriate training and supervision which ensured they understood their roles and responsibilities. Managers had identified where refresher training was out of date and were working with the provider’s training department to address this.

The management team and staff had an understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. They had, in the main, made appropriate applications to the relevant authorities to ensure people's rights were protected.

People chose their own food and drink and were supported to maintain a balanced diet where this was required.

Care records contained detailed, person centred information to guide staff on the care and support required and contained information relating to what was important to the person. These were reviewed regularly and showed involvement of people who used the service or their relatives.

People were supported to pursue social interests relevant to their needs, wishes and interests and received the assistance they needed to maintain contact with family and friends.

Staff treated people with kindness, compassion and respect. Staff recognised people's right to privacy and promoted their dignity. Confidential information was kept private.

Regular quality checks had been completed to ensure people received the support they needed. However, some members of the management team had completed spot checks at people’s homes when they were not in. They did not have permission to do this. The area manager took immediate action to rectify this when we brought it to their attention. Senior managers had not been aware of this practice.

Due to the way the service had been set up the registered manager was being held to account for areas of work over which they had no day to day control. The area manager informed us of the plans in place to address this.

This was an announced inspection carried out on the 24 August and 2 September 2015. This was the first inspection of the service.

St Anne’s Community Services – Leeds DCA 2 is registered to provide personal care to people in their own home and in supported living services and at the time of our inspection provided personal care in ten supported living environment services. They provided a service to 23 people.

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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager did not however, have overall management responsibility for all the supported living services.

We found people were not always protected against the risks associated with medicines because the provider did not have appropriate arrangements in place to manage medicines.. You can see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Overall, there were effective systems in place to ensure people’s safety and manage risks to people who used the service. Staff could describe the procedures in place to safeguard people from abuse and unnecessary harm. Recruitment practices were robust and thorough.

People who used the service told us they were happy living at the service. They said they felt safe and staff treated them well. We saw care practices were good. There were enough staff to keep people safe and staff training provided staff with the knowledge and skills to support people safely.

Staff were trained in the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (2005), and could describe how people were supported to make decisions to enhance their capacity and where people did not have the capacity; decisions were made in their best interests.

Health, care and support needs were assessed and met by regular contact with health professionals. People were supported by staff who treated them with kindness and were respectful of their privacy and dignity.

People participated in a range of activities both in their home and in the community. People were able to choose where and how they spent their time. People spoke positively about the support they received to ensure their dietary needs were met.

Staff were aware of how to support people to raise concerns and complaints and we saw the provider learnt from complaints and suggestions and made improvements to the service.

Systems were in place to monitor the quality and safety of service provision; however, records of all audits and checks that we were told took place were not available at the time of the inspection.