St Anne’s Community Services – Ripon Community House provides support to people living within the Harrogate and Ripon area. They provide an 'outreach' service to people living in their own homes as well as care and support to be 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.

The support provided may include assistance with personal care, support with meals or accessing the community. The service provides support to both younger and older adults (aged 65 and above). At the time of our inspection, the service supported nine people who may be living with a learning disability or have autistic spectrum disorder.

We inspected the service on 22 November and 6 December 2017. This was an announced inspection and we gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of the visit, because it was a small service and we needed to be sure people would be in.

Following our last inspection, the service was awarded a rating of Good. At this inspection, we found the service remained Good.

There were two managers in post who had registered with CQC. They assisted throughout the inspection.

The people supported by the service said they felt safe. The provider had safeguarding policies and procedures in place. Staff understood their responsibility to report any concerns and how they would do this. We found suitable levels of staff were in place to meet people’s needs and people received support from a consistent staff team. Staff continued to be recruited in a safe manner and had an induction process to ensure their competence.

We saw the service tried to promote people’s safety and considered how risks could be addressed. Medication was stored and administered safely. We spoke with the registered managers about the recording of prescribed creams.

The registered managers provided on-going support to staff in the form of supervisions, appraisals and team meetings. Staff received training in key areas and the registered manager completed regular observations of people’s practice to assess their skills and competence.

Where needed, people were supported to maintain a balanced diet. We received positive feedback about the staff from people supported by the service and their relatives. We observed staff had a rapport with people and understood their needs and abilities. Staff respected people’s privacy and care was provided in a kind and compassionate manner.

We reviewed care records relating to people supported by the service. Records were person-centred and made reference to people’s preferences, their abilities and the support they required. The support being provided was reviewed to ensure it continued to meet people’s needs and supported their aspirations.

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 gave us positive feedback about the registered managers. The registered managers and provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service. People were given the opportunity to feedback about the quality of care they received. We saw the registered managers responded in a timely manner to concerns raised.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We undertook this announced inspection on the 23 and 29 September 2015. This agency was newly registered in June 2013 therefore this is the services first inspection.

St Anne's Community Services – Ripon Community House provides supported living, or community based support in people's own homes. The service provides a service to people who live in Ripon and includes supporting living schemes in Northallerton and Harrogate. The service supports people with a learning disability from a few hours a week, to 24 hours and management of the service is delivered through an office in Ripon. At the time of this inspection 19 people were receiving support with personal care by the agency. The agency employs twenty care staff.

There was a registered manager at this service. 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.

People told us they felt safe. Staff had a good understanding of safeguarding procedures and how to protect people from harm. There were risk assessments in place in people’s support plans to identify risks due to people’s health or mobility and to make sure these were minimised without intruding on people’s privacy and independence.

Staff were recruited safely and received training that was relevant to their roles. There was sufficient staff employed to meet people’s needs. They were supported through supervision by senior staff.

Care plans were comprehensive and had associated risk assessments. Medicines were managed safely. People were protected because staff at the agency were aware of and followed the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People who used the service were positive in their comments about staff and they told us they were supported to engage in activities which were meaningful to them.

Systems and processes were in place to monitor the service and make improvements where they could. This included internal audits and regular contact with people using the service, to check they were satisfied with their care packages. Policies and procedures had been updated to ensure they were in line with current legislation.

Our initial experience in trying to contact the service to arrange a visit was poor. This was because the registered manager was on leave and no-one was office based daily to be able to return our calls when we left messages. There were also issues about access to some records as the manager on leave had the only key to the cabinets where these were stored. This could impact negatively on people using the service should anything unplanned or untoward occur. We have therefore recommended the provider review and update contact arrangements for the agency, and how the service is to be run in the absence of the manager to ensure that people are able to contact them and care provision is not disrupted.