20 July 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
About the service
Liberty Support - Midlands is a supported living service providing personal care to 19 people at the time of the inspection. People lived in shared houses, flats and bungalows across different areas within the West Midlands. 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
Right Support
People were not always supported by staff who had received training in line with their needs. However, staff knew people well and people told us they felt safe. People received their medicines safely, but the systems in place to manage medicines weren't always effective.
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 assessed so any potential risks were identified, and steps taken to keep them safe. Systems in place safeguarded people from abuse and staff were knowledgeable about how to support people safely. People were protected from harm through infection control measures.
Right Care
Observations and records showed that people experienced choice and control over their support and care planning was person-centred. People's religion, culture and sexuality was considered as part of their care and staff knew people's likes and dislikes.
Right Culture
Systems and processes in place promoted a positive culture at the service. However, ongoing improvements were required to ensure the governance systems were effective. Action plans were in place to drive further changes to the service such as a new process for gaining feedback from people, relatives, staff and professionals.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 27 June 2022) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced focused inspection of this service which commenced on 23 March 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe, effective and well-led which were considered at the last inspection.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Liberty Support - Midlands on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.