5 March 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Independent Living Alliance Liverpool is a service that provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. The service provides support to people who have physical disabilities, sensory impairment,
mental health support needs, a learning disability or autism. At the time of the inspection the service supported over 200 people however just 11 people received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care.
The monitoring systems in place did not identify the issues we highlighted during the inspection regarding some aspects of record keeping. The registered manager acted quickly to address the issues raised during the inspection.
Medication systems and procedures were regularly reviewed. People received their medicines as prescribed, by trained and competent members of staff. However, some areas of record keeping needed improvement to ensure staff appropriately signed records.
Each person had a detailed support plan stating their needs and requests how they wished to be supported. They were supported to take risks and to make decisions which reflected their preferences and individual needs. However, some aspects of their records needed further review to ensure record keeping was accurate and consistently maintained.
The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of 'Right care, right culture, right support' and other best practice guidance. However, some staff had no knowledge of this guidance.
We have made a recommendation for all staff to have training and awareness in these values.
People were positive about the service and the staff supporting them.
Staff were very positive about the management of the service and felt well supported. Staff felt they received lots of relevant training necessary for their role. Training records and quality checks were submitted by the registered manager who agreed to review information to show improved clarity how they monitor staff records.
We were assured that infection prevention and control (IPC) measures were appropriately followed. Staff had access to regular training and supplies of protective equipment (PPE ) to help keep people safe from cross infection.
There were sufficient numbers of staff recruited who were safely recruited. Management of staffing levels and rotas were not fully available initially. The registered manager has submitted information to show they have safe oversight to check people have enough staff in place to support them.
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was rated 'good' published (4 September 2019.)
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced inspection to follow up on concerns we had received following a safeguarding referral to the Local Authority. The information The Care Quality Commission (CQC) received indicated that there were concerns around governance procedures. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
Our report is only based on the findings in those areas at this inspection. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for the effective, caring and responsive key questions were not looked at during this visit. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used to calculate the overall rating at this inspection.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the ‘safe’ key question. We look at this in all services even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively
The overall rating for the service has remained ‘good’. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. under well-led.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Independent Living Alliance Liverpool on our website at www.cqc.org.uk