Real People Ltd

Updated 17 April 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

• The inspection was carried out by one inspector

Service and service type:

• Real People Ltd provides a service offering community support, supported living, community respite care and support in transition periods for young people and adults who have learning disabilities and other associated needs.

• 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 short notice of the inspection because the registered manager and staff were often out supporting people with daily activities. We needed to be sure that all the necessary people were available to speak to.

• The inspection site visit was on 14 and 16 January 2019. We visited the office location to see the registered manager and to review care records and policies and procedures.

• We contacted people by telephone about their experiences of the service on 15 February 2019. We experienced a slight delay in making these calls due to internal inspector changes.

What we did:

• Before we inspected we reviewed the information we already held about the service. We reviewed the provider information return, (PIR). The PIR is submitted by the provider annually and contains evidence about how the service is performing and developments they intend to make. The PIR helps us to plan our inspection.

• We looked at notifications sent to us by the provider. Notifications are reports about specific events that the provider must tell us about by law.

• During the inspection we looked at three staff records, three people’s care records, we saw policies and procedures, records of accidents and incidents and complaints. We looked at quality assurance reports and audits of the service.

• We spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager, one person who used the service and four relatives of people using the service. We also gained feedback from nine staff members and two professionals that support the service regularly.

Updated 17 April 2019

About the service: Real People provides a service offering community support, supported living, community respite care and support in transition periods for young people and adults who have learning disabilities and other associated needs. The support provided aims to enable people to live as independently as possible.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People told us that staff members were very kind and caring and they looked forwards to their visits. People received exceptional care from staff and the management of the service. The provider truly cared about each person as an individual. And was led by an excellent management team dedicated to delivering the highest standards of care.

• People felt safe and the staff who provided their support made them feel secure. The provider had robust safeguarding procedures in place and staff received training on the subject. Staff understood their responsibilities. The provider supported people to take risks but to remain safe and understand their own safety.

• Staff were safely recruited, and necessary pre-employment checks were completed before staff commenced in post. Staff received a good range of training and support including induction, supervision and appraisals to ensure they were able to deliver their roles safely. Staff felt well supported and equipped to perform their duties.

• People supported with medicines were safe and procedures for risk management was robust.

• Staff were trained in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and assumed people had the capacity to make decisions unless they had been assessed as being unable to do so. People’s mental capacity had been considered as part of the care planning process.

• Staff encouraged people to have an active role in their care. They were supported to complete aspects of their care that were within their abilities. They empowered people to gain their independence and supported them to improve and enjoy their lives.

• People were involved in their care reviews, they were given plenty of notice of the review, so they could invite representatives to attend with them, and consider questions and concerns they may want to raise.

• The provider was very responsive to people’s needs, and those of their relatives. The provider went the extra mile to ensure that people were living full lives that had meaning to them and engaged them at every opportunity.

• Staff told us they maintained people’s dignity and privacy and promoted their independence. People knew how to complain about the provider however there had been no complaints since we last inspected the service.

• People and staff praised the registered manager and people told us they believed the provider to be very well-led. The staff and management shared the same vision of care and excellent support for people at all times. Audits completed by the provider ensured that all aspects of care were in line with best practice and safe. The provider sought feedback from people receiving a service using an annual quality assurance survey.

• The service met the characteristics of outstanding in care and good in all other areas during the last inspection.

Overall rating at last inspection: Good (report published 19 August 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection based on the service’s previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor information that we receive about the service and will return to inspect as per our re-inspection programme or sooner if we have concerns about the service.