Outstandingly well led, local Community Supported Living Service leaps to the highest CQC Rating
Our Ipswich based Community Supported Living service, Norwich Road has received a glowing report, having been awarded ‘Outstanding’ the highest CQC rating available, in the East of England area.
Norwich Road, supports adults with learning disabilities and a range of complex needs within a complex comprising of four flats and two bungalows. We are delighted that they received an overall ‘Outstanding’ rating following their latest CQC inspection. To the best of our knowledge, the team are one of only eight community-based services to achieve Outstanding in the East of England Area. Senior colleagues at Consensus have paid tribute to the team at Norwich Road for their exemplary contributions in achieving this rating.
The CQC inspection focuses on five key areas and examines whether the service is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. The service was rated as ‘Outstanding’ overall, with individual ratings of Outstanding for being well-led, caring and responsive and a ‘Good’ rating for being safe and effective. January’s inspection involved inspectors talking to five people who are supported by the service, three people’s relatives, five members of the team and the registered manager, the head of strategy and operations and the operations manager, in addition to reviewing records and liaising with health and social care commissioners and professionals.
The report was extremely positive and highlighted that, without exception, there was a person-centred approach to everything the service offered and how it was run, being described as outstandingly well-led. Inspectors saw outstanding examples of positive and caring interaction between the colleagues and people supported by the service with people being treated with kindness and respect.
People’s choices were placed at the forefront of the service and people are encouraged to be involved and have a say about matters that could have an impact upon them.
Support Workers were praised for the overwhelming compassion and great kindness with which they treated the people they support, always encouraging and supporting people to develop their independence. The report recognised that people are empowered and encouraged to decide who they would like to share their home with, this included new potential support team and senior operational members.
The report also highlighted that people consistently commented on the positive impact the service had made on their lives and how they had changed for the better and noted that the service showed fantastic flexibility when responding to people’s needs.
The service it was noted is led in a way that consistently focussed on ensuring people’s hopes and expectations were at the top of the services agenda. All the people inspectors spoke with, their relatives and staff were adamant that the registered manager was an excellent manager who had turned a struggling service into an outstanding one.
Norwich Road spends a lot of time making sure supported individuals are matched with their preferred support worker who can best encourage a happy life that offers opportunity, choice and success whilst meeting their very individual and unique needs. The report recognised this and commended the service for their innovative and dynamic recruitment process, robust policies and procedures, and their excellent commitment without exception to providing outstanding care which was embedded into the practices of the staff and registered manager.
A relative told inspectors, “My relative is made to feel they matter. They are asked their opinion in every way and they are taken seriously. They have even interviewed staff.”
Registered Manager, Shayne Mills, was over the moon with the report.
“I am really thrilled with the outcome as it recognises not only all the effort the team puts in, but also reflects the high quality of care and support provided across the service, and more importantly the outcomes achieved by individuals supported by the team at Norwich Road. Together we have progressed this service from its previous rating of ‘Requires Improvement to ‘Outstanding’, which makes me feel so proud. However, we will not become complacent, and will continue to improve the service and ensure we maintain the high standard of care and support.”
James Allen, Managing Director, Consensus said;
“I am delighted and very proud of the terrific achievement of the Norwich Road supported living service in Ipswich. The “outstanding” rating from CQC is the result of a great deal of hard work and commitment by Shayne and so many others within the team. Everybody at Consensus is particularly pleased that CQC commended the team for the compassion and kindness shown to the individuals supported – we believe this is an essential part of what we do.
“As Shayne says it is important we celebrate this outcome but that we do not become complacent in this or any of our other services across the UK.”
Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said; “The quality of care which our inspectors found here was exceptional and I am very pleased that we can celebrate the service’s achievements.
“An outstanding service is the result of a tremendous amount of hard work and commitment. I would like to thank and congratulate everyone involved.”