Wiltshire Council Shared Lives Service

Updated 8 December 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by 3 inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Wiltshire Council Shared Lives Service is a shared lives scheme. They recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers (SLC) who offer accommodation and support arrangements for vulnerable adults within their own family homes in the community.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection. This was to give the provider time to make arrangements with people to meet with us. Inspection activity started on 25 October 2023 and ended on 2 November 2023.

What we did before the 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 met with 5 people who used the service and spoke with 10 relatives about their experience of the care provided.

We spoke with 10 shared lives carers, the registered manager and the team leader.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people's care records and 3 medicine records. We looked at 2 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.

Updated 8 December 2023

About the service

Wiltshire Council Shared Lives Service is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long-term placements, short breaks and respite care, within shared lives carers (SLC) own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

Risk assessments were completed to support people to be as independent as possible. Shared lives carers demonstrated a good understanding of risk management plans and the actions they needed to take to support people to stay safe.

People were supported to safely take any medicines they were prescribed. The support people needed was regularly reviewed to ensure people were as independent as possible. Carers kept accurate records of the support they provided people to take their medicines.

The provider had good systems to match people with a shared lives carer. People were involved throughout this process, to ensure it was the right place for them to live.

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

Right Care

People and their relatives told us they felt safe and received good care. We saw people interacting with shared lives carers, shared lives officers and the registered manager in a confident and comfortable way. People appeared at ease in the presence of staff.

The provider worked with other health and social care professionals to ensure people received the care they need. People were supported to be as independent as possible with their care.

Right culture

The registered manager had promoted a person-centred approach in the service. This was evidenced through the content of staff meetings, support sessions for staff and the training staff received. Shared lives carers said the registered manager was focused on ensuring people received a good service.

The provider had systems to assess and monitor the quality of the service being provided.

Shared lives carers told us they felt listened to and valued by the registered manager.

People were supported to be active members of their community and participate in local activities.

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 8 July 2020, and this is the first inspection.

The last rating for the service at the previous premises was good, published on 5 September 2017.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.