Filey Care and Support LTD

Updated 7 December 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in a number of ‘supported living’ units, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there were two registered managers in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager(s) would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 21 September 2022 and ended on 22 September 2022. We visited the location’s office on 21 September 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited three of the supported living units and spoke with four people who used the service about their experience of the care provided.

We spoke with staff on duty, which included care workers, scheme supervisors/managers and the registered managers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and multiple medicines records.

We looked at seven staff files in relation to recruitment. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, complaints log, accidents and incidents records, staff training records, audits, health and safety checks and meeting minutes.

Following our visit to the service, we spoke with the relatives of four people on the telephone, and an additional four staff members.

Updated 7 December 2022

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Filey Care and Support LTD provide personal care and support to people living in their own home as part of a supported living scheme. The service comprised of several small houses (supported living units) where people had their own bedrooms and en-suite facilities, and access to shared communal living areas and gardens.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. 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. About 80 people were using the service at the time of the inspection, out of whom 11 people received personal care.

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

Right Support:

Some risks in relation to people’s care and welfare were not thoroughly assessed which could have impacted on their safety. We also identified areas for improvement around the safe management of medicines.

The service worked with people to plan for when they experienced periods of distress so that their freedoms were restricted only if there was no alternative.

Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community. Staff supported people to play an active role in maintaining their own health and wellbeing.

Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. People had a choice about their living environment which they were able to personalise.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right Care:

People received care and support from a consistent and knowledgeable staff team. However, recruitment practices were not always safe.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people’s cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care.

People’s care and support plans reflected their range of needs and this promoted their wellbeing and independence.

Right Culture:

The service evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals as appropriate. However, quality assurance systems were not always effective as they had not identified the issues we found.

People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to the wide range of strengths, impairments or sensitivities people with a learning disability and/or autistic people may have. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs.

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 8 November 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe management of medicines, assessing people’s risks, staff recruitment and the management of the service at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.