Grace Eyre Shared Lives Sussex

Updated 11 November 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 undertaken by one inspector and one assistant inspector.

Service and service type

Grace Eyre Shared Lives is a shared lives scheme, they recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers (SLC) who offer accommodation and support arrangements for vulnerable adults within their own family homes in the community.

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 was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 31 August 2022 and ended on 7 September 2022. We visited the location’s office on 2 September 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 the registered office and met with the registered manager and nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We spoke with three people who use the service and contacted four relatives to gather their views. We spoke with two members of office staff and five shared lives carers.

We reviewed five people’s care plans, including medicine records. We looked at two staff records in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service and quality monitoring systems.

We sought feedback from two professionals who have regular contact with the service and we also contacted the local authority.

Updated 11 November 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

Grace Eyre Shared Lives is registered to provide personal care to people living in the community, many of whom have a learning disability. In shared lives, people live together in a family home with an approved shared lives carer who provides daily support. People and their carers are matched together to ensure people’s needs can be safely and suitably met. Shared lives carers were supported by staff directly employed by Grace Eyre Foundation. At the time of the inspection, Grace Eyre Shared Lives were supporting 33 people.

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

Right Support:

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff and carers supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were encouraged to maintain and at times regain independence in areas which were important to them. Personalised communication plans were used to support people understand and make their own choices and a specialist team was formed to ensure important documents were accessible to everyone.

Carers and staff found creative and innovative ways to support people to develop new skills and engage in activities which were meaningful. There was a clear focus on people’s strengths and care was planned and fulfilled according to people’s needs and wishes. People were encouraged to pursue their interests and achieve aspirations and goals.

People were supported to be active and valued members of the local community, including partaking in voluntary work which had significant impact on a person’s well-being and proactive work with organisations that shape support networks for the future. Staff and carers enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community and worked in partnership with them to maintain people’s health and well-being.

Right Care:

People received kind and compassionate care from carers and staff who knew them well. People’s privacy and dignity was protected, and they told us they felt safe living with those supporting them. Carers demonstrated a thorough understanding of people’s individual needs, and all staff knew how to protect people from poor care and abuse.

The service had a strong relationship with external agencies, for example, the local authorities and reported any significant events appropriately. People told us they felt able to express any concerns to carers, office staff or the registered manager. People who had individual ways of communicating, for example using Makaton (a form of sign language), could do so comfortably with staff and carers, as they had the appropriate skills to facilitate this. The service gave people opportunities to try new activities that enhanced and enriched their lives. Staff supported people to take positive risks.

Right Culture:

The ethos, values, and attitudes of management, office staff and the carers ensured people led confident, inclusive and empowered lives. Grace Eyre promotes the value of the organisation being led by those who use it. Two people who use the service were appointed ambassadors and involved in decision making and developing policies to drive improvement in the service. People received good quality care from those who were effectively trained to provide support. 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.

The support provided was tailored to people’s needs by carers who knew and understood them well. Support was exceptionally responsive and allowed people to meet their aspirations and to live a quality life of their choosing. Carers, staff and management placed people's wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did.

People told us they felt their views were valued and acted upon appropriately. This encouraged people to raise concerns immediately if they had any. The registered manager was keen to use any feedback to drive improvement and promote the organisations culture of inclusivity.

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 the service at the previous premises was good, published on 13 December 2018.

Why we inspected

This inspection was undertaken as the service had moved to a new address and had not yet been inspected at their new location. We also wanted to assess whether they were applying the principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Follow up

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