Updated 20 March 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
One inspector conducted the inspection over two days.
Service and service type:
This service provides 24-hour care and support to people living in ‘supported living’ setting, 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.
The service was registered for providing support for up to nine people and nine people were using the service at the time of the inspection. This is larger than current best practice guidance.
However, as seven people lived in a main house and two people lived in a large bungalow annex in the rear garden this mitigated the size of the service having a negative impact overall on people. People lived in individual flats that were made up of a bedroom and en-suite bathing facilities. People shared communal areas, such as a kitchen and living room in the main house and a kitchen and living room area in the annex. The domestic building design fitted in with the surrounding residential area. Staff were not wearing anything that suggested they were care staff when coming and going with people.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit. We needed to be sure that managers would be available to facilitate this inspection.
What we did:
We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return (PIR) to support out inspection. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
We looked at information we held about the service including notifications they had made to us about important events. We also reviewed all other information sent to us from other stakeholders for example the local authority and members of the public.
We spoke with four people who used the service and a relative to ask about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with three members of care staff, two deputy managers and the registered manager.
We viewed three people’s care records, policies and procedures, records relating to the management of the service, training records and the recruitment records of three care workers.
After the inspection we spoke with four more relatives of people who use the service and two adult social care professionals involved with the service.