Salford City Council

Updated 22 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:

The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type:

Salford City Council is a shared lives scheme. They recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers (SLC) who offer accommodation and support for vulnerable adults within their own family homes in the community.

Registered Manager:

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection, there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection:

The inspection was announced. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity was carried out between 9 and 28 November 2023.

What we did before the inspection:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals 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 who used the service and 4 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with 7 shared lives carers and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people’s support plans, 2 shared lives carer recruitment files, shared lives carer training records and records associated with the provider's quality monitoring systems.

Updated 22 December 2023

About the service

Salford City Council provides people with long-term placements and short breaks within shared lives carers (SLC) own homes. Some people may also receive support to access the community. The service supports autistic people and people with a learning disability. At the time of our inspection there were approximately 100 people using the service.

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

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. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

Right Support: 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 were supported to have fulfilled and meaningful lives and to take part in activities and pursue their interests in their local area. Training was provided for Shared Lives Carers, although a number of these courses required updating. We have made a recommendation regarding this area.

Right Care: People were supported to make meaningful choices. There was an ethos of person-centred care and people's human rights were supported to be upheld. People had support plans in place which were person-centred, although we have made a recommendation about ensuring historical records are archived to ensure the correct information about people is easier to find.

Right Culture: The service was well led, with good partnership working with other professionals to achieve this. Shared lives carers felt supported and listened to. Although there were systems in place to monitor the quality of service provided, these were not always clearly documented. We have made a recommendation regarding this.

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 6 October 2022 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.

Enforcement and recommendations

We have made 3 recommendations regarding training, support plans and governance. We will check the progress of this at our next inspection.