United Response, Shared Lives

Updated 29 June 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

This inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

United Response, Shared Lives is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long-term placements, short breaks and respite care, within shared lives carers (SLC) own homes.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was no registered manager in post. A manager was in post and they had applied to the Care Quality Commission to become the registered manager.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we wanted to be sure the manager would be available to support the inspection.

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

During our visit to the office we spoke with the manager and area manager. We viewed records relating to four people using the service and records relating to the recruitment of staff and shared lives carers. We also viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

Following our visit to the office we spoke over the telephone with people who were living in a shared lives placement and six shared lives carers.

Updated 29 June 2022

About the service

United Response, Shared Lives is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long-term placements within shared lives carers own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 19 people using the service.

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

People told us they felt safe living with their shared lives carer and that they were well treated. Managers and shared lives carers understood their responsibilities for keeping people safe from the risk of abuse and they were confident about reporting any concerns about people’s safety.

People received care and support in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Risks to people were assessed and managed in a way that promoted people’s independence. Shared lives carers completed training in topics of health and safety, and they were confident in dealing with emergency situations.

Safe recruitment procedures were followed. The fitness and suitability of office-based staff and shared lives carers was thoroughly assessed before they were recruited to support people using the service, and they received the training they needed for their role. People were matched with a shared lives carer who could best meet their needs.

Safe infection prevention and control (IPC) measures were followed to minimise the risk of the spread of infection, including those related to COVID-19.

Medicines were managed safely. Shared lives carers were suitably trained to manage people’s medicines and their competency was regularly checked.

The culture of the service was person-centred and inclusive. People and shared lives carers spoke positively about the way the service was managed describing the manager as approachable and very supportive.

There were effective systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service which included obtaining the views of people and others. There was good partnership working with others to make sure people received all the care and support they needed.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support:

• The shared lives model of care maximised people’s choice, control and independence.

Right care:

• People received care which was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights.

Right culture:

• The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of United Response shared lives management team and shared lives carers helped ensure people lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 22 February 2018).

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services which have had a recent Direct Monitoring Approach (DMA) assessment where no further action was needed to seek assurance about this decision and to identify learning about the DMA process.

We undertook a focused inspection to only review the key questions of Safe and Well-led. Our report is only based on the findings in those areas reviewed at this inspection. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for the Effective, Caring and Responsive key questions were not looked at on this occasion. Ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has stayed the same based on the finding from this inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.