Background to this inspection
Updated
2 December 2023
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 carried out by 1 inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
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 the service is small and we wanted to be sure there would be staff at the office to speak with us.
Inspection activity started on 04 July 2023 and ended on 20 July 2023. We visited the location’s office on 04 July 2023.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority 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
We spoke with 4 people or their relatives about their experience of care. We spoke with 7 members of staff including care staff, the operations manager and the registered manager.
We reviewed care records for 3 people who used the service and 3 staff recruitment files. We looked at a range of records in relation to the running of the service. This included auditing systems, complaints systems and call monitoring systems. We continued to validate the evidence found.
Updated
2 December 2023
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
Assisted Lives Birmingham is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to older people, younger people, people with learning disabilities and autism and children. At the time of the inspection there were 22 people receiving support with personal care needs.
Not everyone who used the service 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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Right Support:
People had not always had all of the risks associated with their care assessed or mitigated. Peoples care plans needed further information about how to reduce risks in their care.
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.
Staff supported people to take part in activities and pursue their interests, where it was part of their care plan. Staff supported people to access health and social care support and people were supported with their medicines safely.
Right Care:
People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs.
Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff received training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.
The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.
People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because they had a consistent staff team who understood their individual communication needs.
Right Culture:
Systems to oversee the quality of the service had not always been effective. We identified care records did not always reflect the knowledge staff had of how to support a person.
The service enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service.
Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people. Whilst people told us they had opportunities to review their care, records to support this could be more clearly presented.
Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did.
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 02 July 2021 and this is their first inspection.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about the service.
Enforcement
We have identified a breach in how the provider monitors the quality of the service. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.