About the service: Your Life (Tunbridge Wells) is an independent living service for people aged 70 and over. People using the service lived in one or two-bedroom apartments in a large retirement living development. Staff were available 24 hours a day to provide domestic assistance and support such as cleaning, preparing meals, supporting people to mobilise and maintain their health. Personal care was also provided to three people to enable them to remain living independently.

People’s experience of using this service:

• The service offered people who could buy a retirement apartment an alternative to moving to a residential care home as there was always care and support available, on site facilities such as a restaurant and facilitated activities.

• People were funding their care privately and therefore had complete control around how much care and support they received. The service was able to be flexible with the amount of care provided and responded to people’s immediate needs as there were always staff on site.

• One person told us how happy they were with the service; how lucky they felt and how it was very well run. They described how at first, they thought, ‘What have I done’ as it was a big move to make (as they had sold their home and brought this retirement apartment) but that they felt very at home now.

• One relative described how they felt they had, ’Landed on their feet’ with finding this service for their loved one.

• People were empowered to make choices and have control over the care and support they received. They were enabled to remain independent and in their own home, knowing they were safe as support was always available if needed.

• People were supported by a caring and competent staff team who knew them well, who in turn were supported by an effective and well-respected registered manager.

• The home met the characteristics of Good in all areas.

Rating at last inspection: This is the first inspection since the service was registered.

Why we inspected: This was a comprehensive planned inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor this home and plan to inspect in line with our reinspection schedule for those services rated Good.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk