Archived: Ategi Shared Lives Scheme-Herefordshire

Updated 14 December 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 was planned to check 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 took place on 24 October 2016 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the organisation provides personal care to people in shared lives schemes and we needed to be sure someone would be in. One inspector carried out this inspection.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the service and looked at the notifications they had sent to us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We requested information about the scheme from the local authority and Healthwatch. The local authority has responsibility for funding people who used the scheme and monitoring its quality. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion, which promotes the views and experiences of people who use health and social care.

We spoke with five people who used the scheme by telephone to gain their views about the care and support they received. Not all people who used the scheme were able to talk to us directly so we spoke with two relatives by telephone. We spoke with the registered manager, two senior Ategi care staff, nine Shared Lives Scheme-Herefordshire carers (carers) and a member of Ategi administrative staff.

We looked at three records about people’s care and people’s medicines. We sampled three Shared Lives Scheme-Herefordshire carers’ recruitment files and checked staff and carers training records.

We saw the compliments which had been received by the scheme from health professionals and relatives. We checked records showing the actions the registered manager had taken when one person’s representative had raised a complaint. We also looked at records about people’s safety, minutes of meetings with staff and newsletters.

We saw the checks the registered manager made to satisfy themselves the scheme was meeting people’s needs. These included questionnaires people, their relatives and other professionals had completed and checks made by the provider to assure themselves people benefited from living in a well-managed scheme.

Updated 14 December 2016

Ategi Shared Lives Scheme-Herefordshire is registered to provide personal care for people who live in their homes. At the time of our inspection 72 people were receiving personal care.

The inspection took place on 24 October 2016 and was announced. We gave senior staff 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure that they would be in.

A registered manager was in post at the time of our inspection. 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 was run.

People were protected from the risk of potential abuse and told us they felt safe because of the way carers and staff supported them. Carers and staff took action to support people in ways which promoted their safety. We found people's risk assessments and care plans gave clear guidance for carers and staff to follow in order to promote people’s well-being. There were enough carers and staff employed to support people in ways which met their needs and promoted their safety. People managed their own medicines or were supported by carers and staff to do this safely.

People benefited from receiving support from carers and staff who used their knowledge and skills to care for them. Carers and staff took action to promote people’s rights and recognised where people were independent. Some people gained a sense of independence through preparing some of their own meals or by making their own health appointments. Where people preferred support to have enough to eat and drink to remain well this was provided by carers. People received the support they needed to access healthcare, so they would maintain their health.

Caring relationships had been built between people, carers and staff, and people enjoyed spending time with their carers and staff. People were treated with dignity and respect and their right to privacy was taken into account in the way carers and staff supported them. People were encouraged and empowered to make their own day to day decisions about the support they wanted.

People were involved in deciding which carers they were matched with and how their care should be planned. The experience and views of people’s relatives and representatives were taken into account in the way people’s support was planned. People’s care was adapted as their needs changed. People and their relatives knew how to raise any concerns or complaints about the service. Systems for managing complaints were in place, so any lessons would be learnt.

Carers and staff understood how the registered manager expected people’s support to be given so people would receive the care they needed in the way they preferred. People, their relatives, other professionals and staff were encouraged to give feedback on the quality of the service and to make suggestions for developing the scheme further. The registered manager, provider checked the quality of the care provide. Assurances were also obtained through the scheme’s panel. Where areas for further development of the scheme were identified action was taken by the registered manager and staff to develop the scheme and people’s support further.