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Ategi Shared Lives Buckinghamshire

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Unit M1, De Havilland Court, Penn Street, Amersham, HP7 0PX (01494) 932920

Provided and run by:
Ategi Limited

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 24 May 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 an inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience (EXE) is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. Their area of expertise was care of people with a learning disability. They made telephone calls to people who were supported and shared lives carers.

Service and service type:

Ategi Shared Lives Scheme supports people with a range of disabilities and ages to live as part of a family unit within a domestic home. People are matched with approved carers known as ‘Shared lives carers’ (SLC). The scheme offers long-term and short-term placements with SLC, it also offers a mentoring service to people to support them to be an integral part of the community.

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 the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure the registered manager was available to support the inspection.

Inspection site visit activity started on 23 April 2019 and ended on 29 April 2019. We visited the office location on 23 April 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. On the 24 April 2019 we sought further feedback and reviewed the information we had gathered at the office visit. The EXE attempted to make telephone calls to people on the 23, 26 and 29 April 2019.

What we did:

Prior to the inspection we requested and received a Provider Information Return (PIR). Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. Throughout the inspection we gave the provider and registered manager opportunities to tell us what improvements they had planned.

We reviewed notifications and any other information we had received since the last inspection. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

We sent emails to shared lives carers and office staff to seek feedback about the service.

When at the office we spoke with the registered manager, three office staff and one shared lives carer and the person they supported. During the course of the inspection we spoke with a further five people and two shared lives carers. We reviewed five people’s care records We looked at seven shared lives carer recruitment and training records. We read incident and accident records, complaints and complements.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 24 May 2019

About the service:

Ategi Shared Lives Scheme support people with a learning disability, physical disability, mental health concerns, older and younger adults. The scheme supports people to live within a shared lives arrangement. Each person is matched with a shared lives carer. The person then either lives or stays in the carers home as part of their family. The scheme provides long term placements, respite care (Short term placements) and offers a mentoring programme to support people develop their independence. At the time of the inspection is scheme was supporting 44 long term placements.

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

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they were happy with their shared live arrangement. They told us “Yes, I am happy with my carers.” “Yes, I would recommend my carer” and “They are very respectful when dealing with anything personal.”

People were encouraged to engage in meaningful activities and be an active member of society.

People were supported by shared lives carers who had gone through a robust recruitment, selection and matching process.

People had opportunities to meet with the provider and to share their ideas for improvements for the scheme. Shared lives carers were able to contribute to the strategic plan for the scheme by sharing suggestions on improvements to the service.

People were encouraged to be as independent as they could be. One person told us how they went to work, it was clear they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shared lives carers told us they felt supported by the registered manager and other office staff. Comments included, “This has been the best move possible for us. We receive regular and thorough visits, which enable us to feel confident and during which we are able to raise any concerns,” “We have found the service amazing” and “In our experience, Ategi go beyond what we would normally expect in ensuring that any issues are completely and swiftly resolved so that all parties are fully satisfied with the outcome.”

The office staff maintained regular contact with people and their shared lives carers. Care plans were updated to reflect people’s current needs.

The registered manager and provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service provided.

Rating at last inspection:

The previous inspection was carried out on 13, 14 and 15 September 2016 (Published on 26 October 2016). The service was rated Good at the time.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection to confirm that this service remained Good.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, compassionate, high quality care. Inspections will be carried out to enable us to have an overview of the service, we will use information we receive to inform future inspections.