Archived: Creative Support - Kendal

Updated 9 January 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place between 13 and 21 November 2018. The inspection was announced.

We contacted the service on 12 November 2018 to give notice of our visit on 13 November 2018 because this is a small service and we needed to ensure someone would be available to speak with us.

Inspection visit activity included speaking to relatives of those who used the service and to the staff employed. We visited the office location on 13 and 21 November 2018 to speak with the management team and to review care records, staff records and records relating to the management of the service. With permission we also visited one of the supported living houses and briefly met three of the people living there.

The inspection was carried out by one Adult Social Care inspector and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of caring for someone who has used this type of service.

Most of the people who received the service could not easily share their views with us. During the

inspection we spoke with four relatives, four support workers, a registered manager from another of the providers services and the service director. We briefly observed how staff interacted with people and looked at the care records for all the people receiving services. We also looked at records that related to how the service was managed.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the service, including the information in the PIR, before we visited the home. We also contacted the local health and social care commissioners to obtain their views of the service.

Updated 9 January 2019

This inspection took place between 13 and 21 November 2018. The inspection was announced.

We contacted the service on 12 November 2018 to give notice of our visit on 13 November 2018 because this is a small service and we needed to ensure someone would be available to speak with us.

This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered in November 2017.

This service provides care and support to people living in two ‘supported living’ settings including a house with multiple occupation, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. Houses in multiple occupation are properties where at least three people in more than one household share communal areas. There are also facilities for staff to sleep in at night.

People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support. It provides a service to adults who have a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder. There were 4 people receiving regulated activity at the time we carried out our inspection.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

There was a registered manager responsible for the day-to-day management of the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We found that the auditing and quality monitoring systems that were in place that allowed the service to demonstrate it was safe and well managed had not been consistently monitored. The registered manager had been absent for a period and the arrangements for the oversight of the service by the registered provider had only recently identified this.

There were sufficient numbers of suitable staff to meet people's needs. Induction training was comprehensive and training was on going. Staff were supported by the registered manager and senior staff through regular staff meetings, supervision and appraisals.

When employing fit and proper persons the recruitment procedures had included all the required checks of suitability.

Hazards to people's safety had been identified and appropriately managed.

People's dignity and privacy were actively promoted by the staff supporting them.

People received care from a team of staff who they knew well and treated them with respect.

Relatives we spoke with made very positive comments about the service provided and the staff who supported them and told us they would recommend the service to others.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People received the support they needed to take their medicines safely. The staff identified if people were unwell and supported them to contact health professionals.

Further information is in the detailed findings below