Updated 28 February 2020
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 one inspector and one inspection manager.
Service and service type
This service provides care and support to people living in five ‘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 personal care and support.
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. 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.
What we did before the inspection
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 reviewed information we held about the service, for example, notifications. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with three people who used the service and two family members. We spoke with the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider, the registered manager, behavioural specialist and three staff members. We looked at the care records of four people. We looked at four staff records, including training and recruitment records. We looked at other records to do with the management of the service.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data, policies and further recruitment information.