our ‘outstanding’ services - consensus support · outstanding going the extra mile to support...

Inspected by CQCOur specialist Prader-Willi Syndrome services provide dedicated and unique support and accommodation for people with PWS. With an in-depth understanding of this rare, genetic condition we have a reputation for providing a high standard and best practice in PWS support. As well as helping to meet individual needs, our teams nurture each person’s strengths and abilities while understanding and managing their daily emotional, physical, behavioural and social challenges.See pages 4 to 9 to see how we achieved Oustanding in three of our twelve services.

The CQC framework adopts five key lines of enquiry (known as KLOEs) as detailed below.

Our ‘Outstanding’ ServicesAT A GLANCE

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Consensus are proud to deliver truly person-centred support and accommodation to individuals with learning disabilities, autism and complex needs in over 90 services across the UK. We are committed to supporting opportunity, choice and success for the individuals we support and recognise that this can only be achieved when the core values, visions and culture that underpin our organisation are entrenched at every level of the business and within each and every one of our colleagues.

Coupled with our commitment to quality and continuous improvement that ensures we not only have robust measures in place to review performance, we also actively seek opportunities to learn and reflect on best practice. This empowers our service leadership to generate the creativity and innovation to challenge current ways of working, resulting in the delivery of truly person centred care and ‘outstanding’ outcomes for the individuals we support.

Our ambition is to ensure that this remains organisation wide and we are proud that across all UK inspectorate bodies our overall compliancy rating is 99%* with four more of our services rated as ‘Outstanding’ this year alone. As an organisation we are passionate and motivated about the incredible outcomes we can help people achieve and I am delighted that CQC commended the teams for embedding our values as evidenced by the empathy, passion and enthusiasm our teams demonstrated in supporting people to achieve their aspirations and support needs.

Our ‘Outstanding’ services have set the bar and our aim now is to support all our services to meet it.

Sincerely,

Eddie MorganEddie Morgan Managing Director

* CQC, Care Inspectorate Wales, Ofsted, The Scottish Care Inspectorate, as at May 2019

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Consensus Outstanding Booklet | May 2019

Committed to providing the very best support

Our PWS Services

Our Supported Living Services

Our Children’s and Young People’s Service

Inspected by CQC (through the relevant Consensus domiciliary care agencies)Our supported living services are ideally suited to people who have developed more independent living skills and this may include people who are ready to move on from a residential service. The focus is on nurturing greater independence whilst ensuring the individuals we support have maximum choice and control over their lives and live meaningful lives as part of their local community.See pages 10 to 13 to see how our supported living and community support services made the leap to outstanding.

Achieving Outstanding means excelling in at least three of these categories overall. Over the following few pages you can read our heart-warming stories of how we achieved Outstanding across these key lines of enquiry - the dedication of our teams, what it meant to the people they support and the innovative, in some cases ground-breaking practises that really made the difference.

Inspected by OfstedOur Children’s and Young People’s residential home supports young people aged between 14 and 18. Offering a safe, homely, supportive setting, the focus is on wellbeing, education and the development of essential life skills. Promoting stability and security for young people as they transition from childhood to adulthood, the service supports young people to live happy, fulfilling lives and to identify and achieve their short and long term goals.See page 14 to Find out what made our Children’s and Young People’s Service truly outstanding.

Achieving Outstanding in our Children’s & Young People’s Service truly reflected our culture of valuing every individual and celebrating the progress that they make.Ofsted’s inspection report stated that children feel loved, that close caring relationships with staff help the children to feel safe and unconditionally accepted and that relationships between children and staff are remarkable.

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Specialist support for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome requires not only in-depth understanding of the condition (which is mainly characterised by an excessive compulsion to eat) but an empathetic, caring and supportive approach.

As a spectrum condition, every individual with PWS has unique needs and challenges. It was the innovation and creativity of our support teams and pioneering leadership approaches to meet these challenges which led to our Outstanding rating.

Our Outstanding PWS Services

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Turn over to see examples for each key line of enquiry and what truly made the difference.

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Heatherington HouseLocated in Kettering, Northamptonshire, Heatherington House is a bright and homely specialist service providing support and accommodation for eight adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Having been awarded the very top rating of ‘Outstanding’ in all five key lines of enquiry (KLOEs); Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-Led, Heatherington House is now the top-rated service in Northamptonshire and one of only two in the CQC’s East Midland’s area to achieve the highest rating.

The service is run by inspiring Service Manager, Margaret Elliott. The inclusive and empowering environment she has created for all who live and work at the home has resulted in her winning two prestigious awards during her tenure; Manager of the Year Award by Caring Homes and Learning Disability Service Manager of the Year 2017 at the National Care Awards.The home was praised throughout the CQC report for their teamwork and their genuine person-centred approach to supporting and empowering people they support. These themes recur throughout the report which goes on to reinforce the importance of strong communication throughout the support team, but also with people they support, relatives, health and social care professionals and the wider community.

OUTSTANDINGPioneering a revolutionary and empowering approach to food management that challenges current practice and recognised ways of working with people with PWS.

In supporting individuals with PWS, Margaret and her support team recognised the importance of removing the negative stigma around food and allowing people to enjoy greater control and choice about their eating arrangements, because as Margaret says, “Food is everywhere so it is important that we don’t try and shield them from it.”

One approach that had been a resounding success is supporting individuals to recreate their own version of TV show ‘Come Dine with Me.’ This required individuals to take it in turns to design and prepare a three-course menu, purchase the ingredients and cook the meal for everyone living at the home.

Supporting people to enjoy this freedom with food was revolutionary and empowering. It also helped them to build their ability to be around food without the need to gorge.

OUTSTANDINGGoing the extra mile to support people’s right to a private life.

Margaret and the team have put a lot of thought and creativity into helping improve people’s right to enjoy a private life.

In the past, there had been a pay phone downstairs in the hall for everyone living in the home to use, however, people were very aware that everyone could hear them on the phone which limited their privacy. Margaret and the team discussed ways to overcome this and came up with the idea of buying a cordless landline phone that individuals could use to make and receive calls in the privacy of their own bedrooms if they wished. People were really pleased with this change as it enabled them to have private conversations without feeling everyone was listening.

Similarly, Margaret and the support team have gone the extra mile to support people with their personal relationships, with Margaret advocating for people to ensure all parties understand and are able to consent to their relationships. This has supported people to have the intimacy they wished, with individuals supported to have a double bed in their room and a partner stay over if they so wished.

OUTSTANDINGPlacing people at the centre of their care and personalising care in accordance with their needs, beliefs and goals.

Margaret and the team recognised the importance of placing people at the centre of their care and supporting individuals to become as independent as possible and achieve their goals.

One approach the team take is to work collaboratively with people to identify how they would like to develop themselves. An example of this is in terms of weight management and exercise. People had been enabled to understand the impact that exercising may have on managing their weight and improving their health and some people had become members at their local gym. The support team built good relationships with the staff at the gym and as a result people had been enabled to go to the gym on their own, with staff meeting with them at a later point.

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OUTSTANDINGUsing innovation and creativity to balance the need to keep people safe with the need to support people’s growth and independence.

Service Manager, Margaret recognised that to fully support people’s growth and independence, people with the appropriate skills should be able to enter and leave the home

independently. The team recognised that having their own key could present risks for some people but also that waiting for staff to open the door did not promote independence. Margaret helped change the front door lock to a key code system enabling people to come straight into the home. People were particularly pleased with this change and said it was especially helpful on days when it was raining outside.

OUTSTANDINGEvery individual should be supported to fulfil their hopes and dreams and lead as independent a life as possible.

At Heatherington House the focus is on ensuring people who live there can fulfil their hopes and dreams and lead as independent lives as possible. Margaret and the team are continuously looking for ways to empower people and make them comfortable around food items.

Margaret’s approach is to encourage staff to try new ideas and to flourish where their own skills lay, for example by creating beautiful artworks on the walls or taking people on adventure holidays they wished to complete. Margaret also recognises that opportunities for feedback is crucial and actively encourages the staff and people living at the service to share their ideas, suggestions or areas of improvement.

Margaret has also introduced daily hand overs to ensure all staff are aware of what had been challenging or successful in the previous shift. Staff have found this has had a big impact on the smooth running and consistency of care people received.

Overall rating - Outstanding

OUTSTANDINGExceptional and distinctive leadership that drives high quality person-centred care.

The service was recognised as outstanding because of the positive and open culture, with Manager, Eve being visible, accessible and approachable and a strong network of support from senior management, other service managers and head office support available for advice.

At Parvale, Manager Eve and her team, ensure people are truly at the heart of the service, with a focus on striking a balance between keeping people safe and supporting them to achieve their goals. This ensured people were always supported to take positive risks so that they can gain confidence and have control over their lives.

People’s achievements were celebrated and shared in Consensus’s company magazine called ‘All Together Now’ with specific PWS newsletters distributed quarterly and shared with staff and people using the service.

Where people were visiting the service with a view to living there, people were asked for their feedback and their views were listened to and acted upon because significant emphasis was placed on ensuring new people moving in were compatible with those already living there.

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Haydock HouseHaydock House is a specialist residential service located within minutes of Kettering town centre in Northamptonshire. With a homely and positive atmosphere, the service provides accommodation and support for eight adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome. The home is led by Service Manager, Michele Barford who was recognised by the CQC for her strong leadership and for setting high expectations of her team. The CQC report recognised that the service had a positive and open culture with a person-centred approach that ensured that individuals were supported based on their individual needs, goals and aspirations. In providing support the team were successful in finding a balance between keeping people safe and supporting people to take positive risks to acheve their goals. The positive risk taking approach showed that the team respected people’s right for independence and their right to take risks.

OUTSTANDINGUsing innovation and positive risk taking to keep people safe while maximising their choice and control.

Michele and the support team have worked hard to build positive and trusting relationships with the people they support at Haydock House. Using creativity in the way they work with people to understand their diverse circumstances the team can then tailor support to meet their individual needs. This has included giving advice and information on internet safety, phone safety and sexual safety which has supported individuals to understand the risks relevant to their lives and make informed choices.

The support team also support people to develop different approaches to keeping safe when out in the community such as supporting them to have safe walking routes that are well known to both people and the team. People are also given information about places of safety in the town centre they can go to if they feel scared, such as shops, libraries, leisure centres, GP surgeries or anywhere a person felt they could ask for support. The service has built a good relationship with the local police who have visited the service to speak to individuals about safety and have provided them each with a personal panic alarm to keep them safe in the community.

The service also support people to take positive risks, such as one individual who had been supported to manage their money independently which had resulted in their confidence growing and building friendships through greater independence. The team also support people to use technology, with one person using an ‘App’ when travelling on public transport independently so that anxieties with buses running late can be eliminated.

OUTSTANDINGExceptional and distinctive leadership that drives high quality person-centred care.

Michelle and the team are proud of the extremely positive and open culture at Haydock House which ensures that people are always at the centre of everything they do.

At an organisational level, Consensus ensures their core values are embedded in all roles and staff are expected

to work with these values at the core of everything they do, irrespective of what their role may be. During the recruitment process potential staff are required to complete an exercise where they are asked to match a value to an everyday practise. This helped to ensure staff have the right values needed to work with people living at the service.

Individuals working within Haydock house value the collective skills of the support team and the ability to learn from their peers. Staff describe feeling a sense of job satisfaction arising from senior staff within the team supporting them to develop their skills, giving them lead roles and empowering them to drive improvements and new initiatives.

Parvale HouseLocated in Kettering, Northamptonshire, Parvale House is a relaxed and friendly specialist service providing support and accommodation for six adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome. The service is led by Service Manager, Eve Price, who enjoys taking a ‘hands-on’ approach alongside her team. Eve passionately promotes person-centred values and has a strong commitment to promoting independence and social inclusion. The CQC report recognised that the management and support team had an exceptional understanding of people’s individual needs and supported them to achieve their hopes for the future, their wishes and aspirations. Working closely, the team were driven in providing person-centred support to enable people to receive care that was bespoke and tailored to their exact needs and enabled them to achieve as much independence as possible.

OUTSTANDINGSupporting individuals to overcome barriers and achieve an exceptional quality of life.

Manager, Eve and the support team recognise the importance of placing people and their families at the centre of the care planning process. This starts with a comprehensive assessment that empowers and supports people to identify their needs, personal goals, wishes and life dreams, and express their preference about how they want these needs met. People are then supported to overcome difficulties related to their condition in order to achieve their goals and ambitions. Examples of successes of this approach include; an individual who has been supported to work in an animal re-homing centre with the long-term goal to undertake voluntary work

independently; a person who secured paid employment following support with the application process and interview; and a person starting work in a café independently. It was recognised that as a result of the support individuals received to overcome potential barriers to their goals, people were enjoying an exceptional quality of life.

Overall rating - Outstanding Overall rating - Outstanding



Consensus Outstanding Booklet | May 2019Consensus Outstanding Booklet | May 2019

In our supported living services, our focus is to support people’s choices about how they wish to live and lead their lives, encouraging independence so they can achieve everyday tasks and enjoy the things that matter to them.

It was the team’s compassion and kindness with which they treated the people they support as well as key initiatives that helped empower them in their everyday lives which led to a leap to Outstanding. This included involvement in the recruitment of their key workers and devising detailed pen pictures of their needs and how they wished to be communicated with.

Our Outstanding Supported Living Services

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Turn over to see the innovative practises across key lines of enquiry, inspired by the teams and the people they support.

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Norwich Road


55 HeadlandsOur Kettering based Community Supported Living service were awarded with the highest Outstanding CQC rating in the East Midlands area, following their last report in March 2018, making them one of only ten community-based services to achieve Outstanding in four or more of the key areas in the country.

Consensus Community Support Limited supports adults with learning disabilities and a range of complex needs in six supported living environments. The service was rated as ‘Outstanding’ overall, with individual ratings of Outstanding for being well-led, caring, safe and responsive and a ‘Good’ rating for being effective. The inspection involved inspectors talking to six people who are supported by the service, four members of the team and the Registered 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. People’s choices were placed at the forefront of the service and people were encouraged to be involved and have a say about matters that could have an impact upon them.

Carers were praised for the overwhelming compassion and great kindness with which they treated the people they

supported, always encouraging and supporting people to develop their independence. The report recognised that people were empowered and encouraged to decide who they would like to share their home with, this included new potential support team members and individuals considering living at the services.

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.

Consensus Community Support Limited – 55 Headlands spend 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 manager. Registered Manager, Michelle Christie was pleased that the result recognised both the effort the staff team put in and the high quality of care and support provided but also the positive outcomes achieved by individuals supported by the team at 55 Headlands.

Norwich road is our supported living service in North East Ipswich, Suffolk. Consisting of six one-bedroom self-contained flats within a housing complex, the service provides care and support to six male and female adults with learning disabilities, additional complex needs and Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS).

The service is led by Community Support Manager, Shayne Mills, who is praised within the report by relatives and staff alike, for being open, supportive and having good management skills. The CQC report recognised that the management and staff were a strong team and worked well together to ensure people received consistent person-centred care when they were supported by the service.

It was also recognised that the service’s vision and values promoted people’s rights to make choices and live a dignified and fulfilling life and that this was reflected in the personalised care that people received.

Manager, Shayne and the team have a close bond with people who use the service, with lots of open positive and friendly interaction and good-natured banter.

One strategy Shayne uses to encourage people living and working at the service to bond is when people move into and start living in the service, they are supported to put together a pen picture. With the person’s permission, the pen picture is shared with other people living there, which helps people to get to know the person joining their small community. Likewise, new staff are asked to prepare a pen picture of themselves which is displayed in the communal area with other staff profiles, to introduce new staff to people, which helps build up good relationships. Shayne believes by sharing staff’s personal information it puts them on the same footing as the people they support.

During the CQC inspection people said they were happy with the outstanding standard of care they received. Shayne and the team ensure a high-quality assessment

of people’s needs is carried out before they start using the service, which involves input from all interested parties, including family and professionals working with the person. This enables the support team to generate care plans that are highly person centred and detailed enough for staff to deliver care in a way that meets their expressed needs.

They contained comments including, ‘Support me by being friendly and helpful, calm and fun.’ And ‘Never promise me things unless you are 100 per cent sure they will happen, I can’t cope with change’.

Manager, Shayne and the team empowered people who are supported at the service to take part in the recruitment of all levels of staff. In preparation, individuals worked with

their key worker to discuss the sort of questions they could ask and the sort of answers they could expect. They role play the interview until the person feels comfortable with the process. People have also been on the interview panel when both the Head of Strategy and Operations and Operations Manager were recruited.

Overall rating - Outstanding Overall rating - Outstanding


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It is not only the homely, supportive setting and nurturing, caring support provided at Belstead Mews for children and young people which set it on the path to Outstanding.It’s the truly person-centred approach and dedication to helping children progress and develop essential skills during one of the most important phases of their life, as they transition from childhood to adulthood.

Our Outstanding Children’s and Young People’s Service

Belstead MewsThe hard work of Pat and her team were reflected in the OFSTED report which included recognition of their “highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good,” as well as recognition of their actions having “significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.”

Relationships between children and staff were also hailed as ‘remarkable.’ With the report going on to say that, “Staff genuinely want children to achieve and they work extremely hard to support the children to make progress. The impact of the care that children receive results in excellent outcomes and progress.”

The report also shared examples of young people’s outcomes and progress and the creativity used in preparing and supporting young people to be successful in education and many other areas of their lives including relationships, health social interactions and to enjoy their childhood in a safe and caring environment.

Belstead Mews is a six bedded residential care home providing a transitional service for young people aged 14-18 years old, with learning disabilities, moderate challenging behaviours and autistic spectrum disorders.

The service has a strong focus on child development and education and works closely with education, employment, health professionals and families to provide the best possible support and consistency of approach to enable young people to develop their skills and independence.

The service has been led by Registered Manager, Pat Haley since 2015. Highly experienced and knowledgeable, Pat understands the impact care has on children and uses current research to underpin approaches to care that drive progress for children and the service she supports. She is well supported by an effective Deputy Manager and a highly motivated, competent and experienced staff team who share her aspirations for the children in their care.

Our Positive Behaviour Intervention Team (PBIT) and autism consultant are also actively involved with the service, holding monthly clinical review meetings to review the young people’s support. We also maintain relationships with local PCSO to help keep young people we are supporting safe.

OFSTED inspected the service in January 2019 and were extremely pleased with what they observed. In their report they rate three particular aspects as outstanding:

• The overall experiences and progress of children and young people living in the home;

• How well children and young people are helped and protected;

• The effectiveness of leaders and managers.


Overall rating - Outstanding


our ‘outstanding’ services - consensus support · outstanding going the extra mile to support...

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