Archived: SLC Paragon (Midlands)

Updated 21 January 2016

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 on 16 and 17 November 2015 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hour’s notice that we would be visiting the service. This was because SLC Paragon (Midlands) provides personal care and support to people with learning and physical disabilities who live independently in the community, and we wanted to be sure that staff would be available to assist with the inspection. The inspection was undertaken by one inspector.

We looked at the information we held about the service. This included the notifications that the provider had sent us about incidents at the service and information we had received from the public. We also contacted the local authority who monitor and commission services, for information they held about the service.

We visited the homes of three people and spoke with one relative on the telephone. We met with the registered manager and service manager (who is responsible for the service delivery) and five staff at the office. We spoke with two staff at people’s homes and two staff on the telephone. We looked at the care records for five people. This included support plans, risk assessments, medication records, finance records and daily reports. We looked at four recruitment files, staff training records and the registered manager’s quality monitoring audits. We did this to gain people’s views about the care and to check that standards were being met.

Updated 21 January 2016

This inspection took place on the 16 and 17 November 2015 and was announced. This was the first inspection since this service was registered. SLC Paragon (Midlands) provides personal care and support to people with learning and physical disabilities who live independently in the community. Five people used the service at the time of our inspection.

There was a registered manager in post and she was present during our inspection. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People received a safe service, and procedures were in place to reduce the risk of harm to people. Staff were trained and knew how to report and deal with issues regarding people’s safety. People received their medicines as prescribed and safe systems were in place to manage people’s medicines. Staff were recruited in a safe way which ensured they were of a good character to work with people who used this service.

Risk assessments and care plans had been developed with the involvement of people. Staff had the relevant information about how to minimise identified risks to ensure people were supported in a safe way. People had equipment in place when this was needed, so that staff could assist them safely.

The manager understood their responsibility to comply with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). Staff knew about people’s individual capacity to make decisions and supported them to make their own decisions.

People received care from staff that were respectful and caring and ensured that people’s privacy and dignity was maintained. People were supported to maintain good health; we saw that staff alerted health care professionals if they had any concerns about their health. People had someone they could talk to if they were not happy about the service they received.

Arrangements were in place to assess and monitor the quality of the services, so that actions could be put in place to drive improvement.