Salford City Council

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.