North Tyneside Shared Lives

Updated 19 December 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

1 inspector and 1 Expert by Experience carried out the inspection. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a shared lives scheme. They recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers (SLC) who offer accommodation and support arrangements for vulnerable adults within their own family homes in the community.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection the service had a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small, and people are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

We visited the service on 31 October 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR). A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 4 people who used the service. We observed staff interacting with people. We spoke with the registered manager, both community reablement workers, 7 Shared Lives carers and 5 relatives. We asked for feedback via email from 10 health and social care professionals.

We reviewed a range of records. This included people’s care and support records and medication records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including auditing, training data, action plan, analysis, policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 19 December 2023

About the service

North Tyneside Shared Lives is a ‘Shared Lives’ service providing personal care to people, some of whom have a learning disability and/or autism living in their own homes. The service was supporting 19 people with personal care at the time of our inspection. North Tyneside Shared Lives recruits, trains and supports Shared Lives carers. We refer to Shared Lives carers as 'carers' throughout this report. A carer is an individual who provides personal care together with accommodation in their own home. This enables people to live as independently as possible. The scheme supports adults who have a learning disability and/or autism. North Tyneside Shared Lives provides three main services: long term accommodation and support, short respite breaks and emergency accommodation, care and support which is provided at short notice and usually in the event of an illness or family crisis.

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.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support

¿ People felt at home, relaxed and able to be themselves. People were supported with warmth, compassion and dedication. Staff encouraged people to pursue the interests and activities that were important to them, as well as celebrating their successes.

¿ Carers knew people extremely well, as did the registered manager and the service’s 2 community reablement workers.

¿ The planning and delivery of care was collaborative and inclusive; the provider worked closely with external agencies, health and social work professionals, relatives and people to ensure people’s needs were met.

¿ People experienced good health and wellbeing outcomes. Staff had a good understanding of the risks associated with people’s needs. They encouraged positive risk taking.

Right Care

¿ The provider ensured carers had sufficient time to get to know people. Their ‘matching’ process was exceptional. People and carers got to know each other and there were extremely smooth transitional processes in place.

¿ Staff understood how to encourage people to develop their own independence. They celebrated people’s achievements and people flourished and thrived in homely environments, where they were treated like members of families.

¿ Staff proactively advocated for people and where people needed help to make specific decisions, they sought the right help from external advocacy services.

¿ Enablement plans were person centred and detailed at the point people began using the service. They were reviewed regularly.

¿ Staff worked extremely well with external health and social care professionals, seeking out specialist help when needed. People received a high quality of care as a result.

Right culture

¿ The culture of the service was focussed on people being able to thrive in a homely environment where they were valued, respected and supported. There were close working relationships between the office team and the Shared Lives carers, which ensured people received a high standard of care, and continuity.

¿ People, their relatives, and their Shared Lives Carers, with whom they shared their lives, were involved in decisions about their care and how the service was run.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The service was rated good in an inspection on 24 July 2018.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.