Active Prospects has received an overall rating of Good for our Supported Living services, with an Outstanding rating for our leadership.
This follows a five-day Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection carried out in July this year. The inspection team visited four of our supported living services, and interviewed a number of staff, people we support and family members, as well as representatives of partner organisations.
The result means that 50% of our CQC-registered services have an Outstanding rating in at least one inspection domain, and 100% of all services continue to be rated at least Good overall.
Maria Mills, Chief Executive, said: “We are really pleased that the dedication and skill of our support staff and managers have been recognised. There has been a rise in Requires Improvement or Inadequate ratings across the care sector this year, so to achieve a Good rating is particularly satisfying given social care continues to be chronically under-funded.”
The inspection team noted that “The culture of the service was open, inclusive and empowered people to live independent lives. It was exceptionally well-led from the top and feedback from people, their relatives, staff, healthcare professionals and the systems in place reflected this. People and their relatives told us they felt staff had the skills, experience and training to provide effective care.” Inspectors also observed “kind and caring interactions between people who used the service and staff. People appeared to be at ease and staff were polite, spoke in a respectful manner and supported people appropriately.”
Inspectors heard directly from people we support and their families, who told them:
- “They are very kind and caring, definitely. It’s the greatest support I’ve had.”
- “The staff are absolutely outstanding. They are respectful towards your wishes and concerns. They are so understanding.
- “They’ve been brilliant with leading aspiring lives, because that’s what they do, and they do it well.”
- “I can’t praise them enough. It’s like I’ve been paid to say it. It’s the best three years of [person’s] life. I would recommend it so strongly. I trust them and I am able to sleep at night.”
- “I feel very fortunate because I am very reassured. I would recommend them.”
- “I’m constantly asked, ‘what do you think of this? Can we try this?’ by his key worker: Trying a bigger range of activities and introducing [person] to newer things.”
- “They’re all very kind and knowledgeable about [person] which is what it’s all about.”
The full inspection report can be found at: https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-7424842370
The full list of CQC inspections of Active Prospects services can be found at: https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/1-101650500/services
CQC inspectors ask five questions of each service they inspect:
- Is the service safe?
- Is the service effective?
- Is the service caring?
- Is the service responsive?
- Is the service well led?
The inspection team then give a rating for each question of either ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’, which feed into an overall rating. Active Prospects received ‘Good’ ratings for the first four questions, and ‘Outstanding’ for ‘Is the service well led?’
