YourLife (Alresford)

Yourlife (Alresford) provides care and support to people living in ‘extra care’ housing. People using the service live in their own flats within a shared building containing 57 flats. The building also houses the offices used by the manager and staff.

Not everyone living in the flats 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. At the time of this inspection 4 people received personal care from Yourlife (Alresford) staff.

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

Although people told us they felt safe, we identified a lack of detailed guidance for staff on how to provide safe care to people. The manager took prompt action to address this. Risks were mitigated by a well-trained, knowledgeable staff team and people we spoke to confirmed this. 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.

People and their relatives confirmed there were enough staff to meet people’s needs and confirmed calls were never missed. The provider was flexible with call times which promoted people’s choices and enabled them full control of their lives.

We found recruitment processes were not as robust as they could have been. The manager took prompt action to address this. There were systems and processes in place to record, assess and analyse accidents and incidents. However, these were not always robust. The manager took action to address this.

Quality assurance systems and processes were in place for monitoring, assessing and improving the quality of care provided to people who use the service. However, they had not consistently identified the areas of improvement required, which we found on inspection. This included; recruitment, person centred management plans for risks and medicines. The manager took immediate action to address the concerns.

People we spoke to thought staff had the right skills to care for them and were confident in their abilities. An induction package was in place and ongoing training and supervision was provided.

People told us they were cared for by staff who were kind and caring and treated them with dignity and respect, while supporting them to be as independent as possible. People and staff told us they felt listened to and were kept updated by the management team.

The management team were open and transparent and understood their regulatory responsibilities. People and their family members told us the service was well led and they would recommend Yourlife (Alresford) to others.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 13 May 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

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