Archived: Hillview

Hillview Merstham is a supported living service providing support and personal care for people with a learning disability and autism in one house and an annex with shared communal areas. At the time of the inspection there were 11 people using the service. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection, there were five people being supported with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, Right care, Right culture.

Right support

People had individual goals and objectives and staff supported them to work towards these. Staff supported people to live as independently as possible and be in control of their daily lives. People were provided with a choice in all their decision-making and their relatives were included throughout. People’s risks in relation to their care were managed and people were able to live independent lives. There were sufficient staff deployed to meet people’s needs and people received their one-to-one support hours appropriately. We were assured the service were following safe infection prevention and control procedures to keep people safe.

Right care

People who used the service and their relatives told us that they felt supported by staff in a kind, caring and dignified way. People’s differences were respected by staff and they ensured people were living in a way that respected their human rights. People told us their right to privacy was respected and that the care provided was consistent and delivered by staff who knew them well.

People’s right to privacy was respected and there was a consistency of the care provided by staff who had been working there for a long time and who knew people well. The service was situated in a residential area and there were no outward signs to differentiate it from other houses in the street. Whilst the service was large, the house did not stand out from other properties on the street.

Right culture

The culture of the service was open, inclusive and empowered people to live confident lives. People told us they felt happy living at the service and that the culture was open and inclusive. People told us they felt confident to live empowered lives with the support of staff. We observed staff interacting in a kind and compassionate way with people who used the service and amongst themselves. People who used the service, their relatives and staff were complimentary about the service and the leadership. Management had undertaken regular audits to look at lessons that could be learnt and made appropriate improvements to the service. People and their relatives told us they felt engaged in the running of the service and were able to express their views to improve the care provided.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 30 April 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and due to the time since it first registered with the Care Quality Commission.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service which will help inform when we next inspect.