Crosby Women's Service

Updated 11 June 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:

This inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type: Crosby Women’s Service is a supported living service providing care and support to people so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for support living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

There was a new manager in post who was currently registering with the Care Quality Commission. This will mean 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 two days notice of the inspection visit because it is small and we needed to be sure that people living at the service knew in advance that we would be visiting.

What we did:

Prior to our inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). Providers are required to complete this if requested and the document contains key information about their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make.

We reviewed statutory notifications that had been received and contacted the commissioners who help arrange and monitor the care of people supported by the service. We also reviewed previous inspection reports and this information helped us to plan how the inspection needs to be carried out.

During the inspection we spoke with two people who used the service. We also spoke with five staff including the nominated individual, the manager, a team leader, the quality lead and a support worker. A community psychiatrist nurse (CPN) visited during our inspection so we were also able to gain their views on the service provided. We looked at a range of documents and records related to people's care and the management of the service. We viewed three people's support records, three staff recruitment, induction and training files and a selection of records used to monitor the quality and safety of the service.

Updated 11 June 2019

About the service: Crosby Women's Service provides supported living accommodation for women with mental health needs who had usually spent a long time previously living in a secure service. The service consists of six individual flats with shared communal living areas. At the time of the inspection six people were being supported.

People’s experience of using this service:

Crosby Women's Service was exceptionally responsive to the needs of the people living in the service and promoted a calm and relaxed therapeutic environment for people adjusting to living back in the community from long term inpatient mental health services. Facilities included a therapy room which could be accessed for a variety of treatments by a trained person and communal living areas to encourage people to form social relationships and reduce the risk of feeling isolated. There was also a respite room maintained by the people supported which was available for people planning to move into the service as well as people who had moved on but may need to access extra support.

People living at the service gave us examples of the positive impact the support offered had made on their lives including one person feeling they had ‘got their life back’ and other people told us how they had been able to develop new friendships and had a sense of purpose through voluntary work opportunities.

People received care and support from staff who were caring and respectful. People's needs had been fully assessed with a significant emphasis to develop trusting relationships with people. The service worked in close partnership with other agencies to achieve this.

There was a strong person centred culture. Support plans were extremely person centred and people were fully involved in the planning and review of their care. Promotion of independence was at the heart of the service as well as supporting people to develop their confidence and ordinary living skills following long periods living in hospital.

Privacy and dignity was respected at all times and people spoke extremely positively about the staff and management team. We were told by one person, “Staff are great, very approachable. The manager is great, the team leader is great. Staff are always here on time and friendly. I can’t fault the service”.

The registered provider complied with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005. Staff understood and respected people's right to make their own decisions where possible and encouraged people to make decisions about the care they received. Consent had been sought before any care had been delivered in line with legal requirements. Where people had conditions under the Mental Health Act 1983, staff were knowledgeable and they were clear in support plans.

People knew how to make a complaint and they were confident about raising concerns should they need to.

The manager worked in partnership with other agencies to ensure people received care and support that was consistent with their assessed needs.

Safe recruitment practices were in place and people were supported by staff that had undertaken a thorough induction process and training relevant to their roles. Enough staff were employed to meet the needs of the people using the service. Staff were supported through regular supervision, team meetings de-briefs and reflective practice sessions. Staff felt well supported by the current manager.

People were protected from the risk of harm and abuse. Staff had received training and felt confident to raise any concerns they had.

Medicines were administered by trained and competent staff and people were supported to be as independent as possible.

Staff had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent and control the spread of infection.

There were robust governance systems in place to ensure that the quality of the service was monitored.

Rating at last inspection: The service was rated good at the previous inspection (published 28 November 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection to check the service was still rated good. During this inspection we found that the service remained good however it had improved in the responsive domain and we have now rated this key question outstanding.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor all intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk