We carried out an announced inspection at Vision Beyond Autism on the 23 March 2017 and 27 March 2017. This was the first ratings inspection since the provider had registered with us in February 2015.

Vision Beyond Autism is a small bespoke service that provides learning support and personal care for people and children who have autism in their own homes or in a school/college setting. The support provided focuses around positive behavioural support for adults and children, and there is an emphasis on this throughout all areas of support and risk management. At the time of the inspection the service supported six people.

There was a registered manager at the 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.

Without exception the feedback we received about care people received was excellent. Relatives told us how the service had made a difference to people’s lives and people had become more independent with the caring and patient support they had received from staff.

People’s independence was promoted throughout the support provided and the support staff gave to people centred around their daily living skills and had enabled people to live a full and varied life.

The registered manager led the staff by example and the values were promoted and understood by staff. Relatives highly recommended the service and told us that the registered manager was approachable and helped them to understand how to support their relative effectively.

We saw that the provider had systems in place to ensure that people received a high standard of care and actions were taken by the registered manager to ensure people received support that met their needs.

The registered manager encouraged and supported staff to gain further knowledge and experience through training and regular updates in best practice gained from research and information from other agencies.

People’s risks were planned and managed in a way that promoted their independence whilst keeping people safe from harm.

People were protected from the risk of abuse because staff had a good understand of the signs of abuse and their responsibilities to report any concerns.

We found there were enough suitable recruited and qualified staff available to meet people’s needs. Staff received an intensive induction to ensure that they were confident to provide support to people.

People’s nutritional risks were managed and monitored and people were supported to access health professionals to maintain their health and wellbeing.

People were supported to consent to their care and where they were unable to do this for themselves appropriate representatives had been involved.

Staff understood how to support people who displayed behaviour that may challenge and the focus of the service was to support people to enable them to manage their anxieties to reduce occurrences and triggers of behaviours that may challenge.

People and relatives were involved in the planning and review of their care and staff knew people’s needs and preferences well.

People and relatives knew how to complain and complaints were dealt with in line with the provider’s policies.