Updated 31 December 2019
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 Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by four inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.
Service and service type
Thera North is a supported living service. It provides care and support to people living in ‘supported living’ settings, so 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 care and support.
The service had two managers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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.
Notice of inspection.
This inspection was announced. We gave the provider three working days’ notice, to ensure they would be available and to give them time to gain relatives’ consent for us to contact them for feedback.
Inspection activity started on 16 September 2019 and ended on 14 October 2019. We visited the office location on 16 September 2019.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed the previous inspection report and information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included information from the provider about important events that had taken place at the service, which they are legally required to send us. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
The majority of Thera locations, including Thera North, are registered in Grantham, Lincolnshire, despite the organisation being responsible for locations in different parts of the country. Due to this, a decision was made by CQC to co-ordinate inspection activity at a number of Thera locations. A head office visit was carried out on 16 September 2019 by a team of inspectors prior to locations being inspected. The information from this visit fed into each of the location inspections.
During the Thera North inspection, we visited seven supported living settings and spoke with 10 people being supported by the service, to gain their feedback about the support they received. We also met with one person at a community setting of their choice. We spoke on the telephone with nine people’s relatives/representatives to gain their views about the support provided. We also spoke with fifteen support staff, the two registered managers and the nominated individual for the service. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service.
We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and a selection of medicines records. We looked at two staff recruitment files and staff supervision and appraisal records. We also reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures and audits.
After the inspection
We reviewed further information received from the provider, including policies, training records, meeting minutes and records of audits completed.