Archived: 130 Suez Road

Updated 22 January 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This announced inspection took place on 9 December 2015. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a supported living service for people who are often out during the day. We needed to be sure that someone would be in. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Before the inspection we looked at information that we held about the service including notifications. Notifications are information regarding important events that happen in the service that the provider is required to notify us about by law. Before the inspection, the provider had completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also spoke with a contracts monitoring officer from the local authority, a community psychiatric nurse and a care manager from the local authority who had contact with the manager, staff and people using the service.

During the inspection we spoke with five people about the care and support they received. We also spoke with two relatives of people using the service, the manager and five members of care staff.

We looked at four people’s care records, quality audits, staff meeting minutes, staff rotas and medication administration records. We checked records in relation to the management of the service such as quality assurance audits, policies and staff training and recruitment records.

Updated 22 January 2016

130 Suez Road is registered to provide personal care for up to eight people in supported living accommodation. There were eight people using the service when we visited. Accommodation is provided in eight self-contained flats. There is a shared communal lounge area which comprises of a cooking area for people to use when they so wish. There is a shared laundry facility and bathroom. Support is provided to people on a 24 hour basis. This announced inspection was carried out on 9 December 2015.

At the time of our inspection a registered manager was not working at the service. 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. The registered manager had left their post in July 2015 and their application to voluntarily cancel their registration was in process. A manager had been appointed and they were in the process of applying to be registered with the Care Quality Commission.

Staff were not acting in accordance with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act.. Thy could not demonstrate how they supported people to make decisions about their care and where they were unable to do so, there were no records showing that decisions were being taken in their best interests. This also meant that people were potentially being deprived of their liberty without the protection of the law.

There were sufficient numbers of staff to assist people’s with their care and support needs. There were care and support plans and risk assessments in place to provide staff with guidance to meet people’s individual care needs. However, they were not up to date. This meant that people were at a risk of not being protected from inappropriate or unsafe care

Staff assisted people with their personal care, their medicines, activities/hobbies of their choice, cooking and domestic tasks in a kind and cheerful and sensitive way.

Members of staff were trained to provide care which met people’s individual needs and wishes. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities. They were supported by the manager to maintain and develop their skills and knowledge through supervision, and ongoing training.

People and their relatives felt able to raise any suggestions or concerns they might have with the manager. People felt listened to and reported that communication with the manager and members of staff was very good.

The manager had arrangements in place to monitor the day to day management of the service. People who used the service and their relatives were encouraged to share their views about the quality of the care and support provided. However, the provider did not have an effective quality assurance system in place.to monitor the quality of the services provided for people.

We found two breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.