Updated 14 December 2019
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 team consisted of one inspector from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Service and service type
This service provides care and support to people living in a number of ‘supported living’ settings, so that 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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was to ensure the registered manager would be available to support the inspection and to allow time for people to be asked if we could complete home visits to speak to them in person. Inspection activity started on 11 November and ended on 13 November.
What we did before the inspection
Prior to the inspection we reviewed information and evidence we already held about the service, which had been collected via our ongoing monitoring of care services. This included notifications sent to us by the service. Notifications are details about changes, events or incidents that the provider is legally obliged to send to us without delay. We also asked for feedback from the local authority and professionals who worked with the service.
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 used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with four people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with five members of staff including the registered manager, locality manager and support workers.
We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and four people’s medication records. We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment along with a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, audits and quality monitoring information.