21 January 2015
During a routine inspection
The inspection took place on 21 January 2015 and was announced. We last inspected Adult Placement in October 2013. At that inspection we found the service was meeting all the regulations we inspected.
Adult Placement is a shared lives scheme that recruits, assesses and supports paid carers to support people with learning disabilities who are unable to live independently. Placements are made on a short or longer term basis and the person lives with their carer in their home as part of the family. At the time of our inspection the scheme was supporting 14 people and had 22 approved carers, including support carers who supported people on occasions when their designated carers had breaks and holidays.
The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
Robust processes were followed to recruit and assess people who applied to become shared lives carers, and to review the suitability of the existing carers. There were enough carers to deliver the service safely and people were provided with continuity of care. All carers were given training and support to meet the needs of the people they cared for, including regular opportunities to meet as a carers group and with the shared lives workers.
The shared lives workers were skilled and experienced in co-ordinating the scheme and were appropriately supported in carrying out their roles. They monitored the placements closely and had a good awareness of how to safeguard people from harm and abuse. The workers promoted personal safety whilst respecting people’s freedom to exert their independence and take risks.
Each person was encouraged to make choices and decisions about their care and living arrangements. Where people did not have the mental capacity to make important decisions, the scheme worked with other professionals to ensure their rights were being protected under mental capacity law.
We found that care and support was safely planned to minimise risks to people’s well-being.
People were supported to stay healthy, have a balanced diet, and, wherever possible, to manage their own medicines. Detailed support plans were drawn up which reflected the person-centred care that people received.
People who used the service, and professionals involved in their care, were happy with the care and support provided. They told us the shared lives carers were kind and caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People were placed with supportive individuals and families who enabled them to lead active lives, take part in enjoyable activities and develop their life skills.
There was an open culture and the team worked inclusively with people using the service, their carers, and other professionals. Systems were in place to obtain and act on feedback and make improvements to the quality of the service. An independent panel kept oversight of how the scheme was managed and delivered to make sure that standards were maintained.