Kent PBS Service

Updated 26 August 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in two ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. the Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

The service had a manager who was in the process to be registered with the CQC. This means that the provider is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided until the registration process is completed.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service. We spoke with four members of staff including the manager, clinical occupational therapist, team leader and a support worker. We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 26 August 2021

About the service

Kent PBS is an agency providing personal care to two people in individual supported living houses. Care and support is provided over a 24-hour period including overnight staff. Kent PBS offer a service to people who are living with mental health needs or learning disabilities, transition from secure settings, to the community to live as independently and safely as possible. The homes people live in are owned by Kent PBS and are people have separate tenancy agreements for this.

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

The manager told us, “I am extremely passionate about what we do. We have seen so many positive outcomes for our people that evidence that what we are doing is changing people’s lives and that’s what we are here to do.”

People told us, “I am very happy here. [staff] help me with things I need help with, not just doing everything for me. I love my home; it feels like my home. People felt safe and staff were informed about people’s histories and relevant sensitive information to keep them safe and supported correctly.

Systems and processes used by Kent PBS were relevant, appropriate and kept up to date in real time and risk assessments were personal, detailed and identified warning signs and what to do in an emergency guidance for staff.

There were adequate levels of staff to keep people safe, with varying skills needed to support people with their needs and staff supported people to minimise the risk of infection and to stay as safe as possible during the COVID- 19 pandemic.

People's medicines were managed in a safe and responsible way.

The manager and staff were open and honest when things had gone wrong and lessons learned from these were shared.

People were supported to have maximum 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.

The service worked with external health and social care professionals and specialist learning disability teams to provide effective joined up care.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support:

• People’s choices were maximised and supported to develop more control and independence whilst remaining safe.

Right care:

• Care is person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human

rights

Right culture:

• Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensured people

using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives

People were involved in planning their care from initial assessment. People were given control and choice about how they wished to be supported and could make choices about their support and smaller important details such as how they would wish their home to be decorated.

Staff we observed were patient, informative and treated people with respect and kindness.

Houses were single dwelling properties. There were no offices in people’s homes and except for in an emergency staff did not have keys or allow access by themselves.

People were supported to participate in activities that were relevant to them. Staff had assisted people to host social events such as BBQ and were planning for one person to have the tattoo that they had always wanted.

Complaints were actively encouraged and there was an open and honest culture in dealing with issues raised.

People and staff knew who the manager was and who the senior team were. The service had a clinical occupational therapist, clinical psychologist as well as a manager who was a registered mental health nurse all involved in planning and implementing people’ s care and support.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 13 December 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection as the service had not been inspected previously.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.