23 October 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Shared Lives Northumberland is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long term placements and respite care within shared lives carer’s own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 70 people using the service but only 54 received regulated activities. Some shared lives carers were approved for more than one person to live in their home.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Right Support: People received remarkably personalised care and support from highly dedicated staff teams and shared lives carers. People succeeded in all aspects of their daily lives. This included massively increased confidence, being supported with new skills and increased opportunities which may not have readily been available to them in other circumstances.
People reached milestones in their lives and were supported with goals and aspirations they may have had. People were supported to have maximum autonomy, 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.
Right Care: People received exceptionally personalised care and support which upheld their dignity, privacy, and human rights as individuals. People received care and support from extremely kind and compassionate staff and shared lives carers. Shared lives carers were remarkably attentive and responded immediately to changing needs, which meant people always continued to receive full and responsive care and support to enhance their lives.
Right Culture: People were truly at the heart of the service and a good culture had been developed over many years. The values and approaches of shared lives carers and staff were exemplary. People were accepted as part of shared lives carers families, and empowered to lead settled, fully included, and confident lives. The staff team promoted transparency and a culture of good teamwork.
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 good (published 12 July 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
Please see the safe, caring, and well-led sections of this full report. The caring key question is now rated outstanding. The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Shared Lives Northumberland on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.