Archived: Choice Support (Cheshire)

Updated 15 April 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection was announced and took place on the 4 March 2016. Three home visits to people receiving support from Personalised Support took place on the 8 March. The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Before the inspection we checked the information that we held about Personalised Support and the Lady Verdin Trust. We looked at any notifications received and reviewed any other information we held prior to visiting.

During our inspection we saw how seven people were being supported. Because some people had communication difficulties we were unable to ask all of them what they thought of the care being provided to them. Those people who did comment were positive about the staff members.

The registered address was appropriately equipped to deliver the service and contained offices, meeting rooms and training facilities. The Lady Verdin Trust had its own training and HR departments and they undertook any training and recruitment for all of the services, including Personalised Support. During the inspection we looked a sample of care plans in both the office and during the home visits. All of the other documentation we inspected, including recruitment files, training records, complaints and audit materials were reviewed in the office.

Updated 15 April 2016

This inspection was announced and took place on the 4 March 2016. Three home visits to people receiving support from Personalised Support took place on the 8 March.

The Lady Verdin Trust Personalised Support provides a range of services to adults with a learning disability. People who use the service live in homes that are managed by a housing association or are privately owned. People are supported to be as independent as possible. Because of the differing support needs the level of staff support ranges from drop in visits to staff being on duty 24 hours a day. The offices for the service are located on the main Crewe to Nantwich road. At the time of the inspection 29 people living in 15 properties were receiving a service.

Personalised Support had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The registered manager, (their job title within the organisation was community services director) was based in the office and had oversight of the service. Day to day management in the settings where support was provided was undertaken by five community support managers who each had responsibility for a number of properties and 14 support managers who all worked directly in people’s homes.

Because of their communication needs we were unable to ask all of the people receiving a service about whether they thought the staff members supporting them were caring. Those who did comment were positive about the staff members.

The service had a range of policies and procedures which helped staff refer to good practice and included guidance on the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This meant that the staff members were aware of people's rights to make their own decisions. They were also aware of the need to protect people's rights if they had difficulty in making decisions for themselves.

We asked staff members about training and they confirmed that they were receiving regular training. They described this as either their Diploma or their CPD [continuous professional development] training and that it was up to date.

We looked at a sample of the computerised care records in the office and four care files during the home visits undertaken. The files we saw explained what was important to the individual and how best to support them. This helped to ensure that people’s needs continued to be met.

Staff members we spoke with were positive about how the service was being managed. During the three home visits we observed them interacting with the people they were supporting in a professional, caring and friendly manner. All of the staff members we spoke with were positive about the service and the quality of the support being provided.

We found that the provider used a variety of methods in order to assess the quality of the service they were providing to people. These included asking the people themselves what they thought and regular audits on areas such as the care files, including risk assessments and staff training. The records were being maintained properly.