South West Supported Living

Updated 1 August 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 carried out by 2 inspectors.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in 6 ‘supported living’ settings, so 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 supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

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 not a registered manager in post. A new manager was in the process of applying to register. We are currently assessing this application.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 5 July 2023 and ended on 6 July 2023. We visited the location’s services on 5 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We sought feedback from the local authority and used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 4 people and 3 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 9 members of staff including the acting manager, the head of operations for the south, the regional manager for the south west and 6 support workers. We spoke with a visiting health and social care professional and requested written feedback from 5 additional health and social care professionals.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people's care and support records and 3 people’s medicine administration records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment. We also looked at a range of records relating to the management and monitoring of the service. These included staffing rotas, staff spot check observation records, accident and incident records and a range of the providers quality assurance records, policies, and procedures.

Updated 1 August 2023

About the service

South West Supported Living is provided by Community Integrated Care and is a supported living service. Not everyone who uses the service receives personal care. 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.

At the time of the inspection, the service was providing personal care to 17 people with a learning disability and autistic people across six settings in the Bournemouth area. There was a central office in Wareham.

The supported living settings varied between individual flats with sole occupancy to houses with shared living areas, kitchens and individual bedrooms. Each of the locations had a staff sleep-in room and an office.

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

Improvements had been made by the provider which ensured risks to people’s health and safety were effectively managed. Staffing levels had improved with the service employing more permanent members of staff and considerably reducing the reliance on agency staff. When required, a small team of agency staff were employed to help ensure consistency of care for people.

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:

Risks were managed with the least possible restriction and people were supported to maintain and develop an independent lifestyle.

People and relatives told us how they or their family member could choose how they wanted to live and received the support they needed to do this. Staff encouraged and supported people’s choice and independence.

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.

People were encouraged and supported to maintain a healthy lifestyle and supported to enjoy a variety of hobbies and interests which maintained their sense of well-being.

Right Care:

Care and support were provided according to people’s individual needs and wishes. Staff ensured people’s privacy and dignity were respected. People felt safe with staff and enjoyed spending time with staff who they knew well. Staff had a good understanding of people's care needs and ensured care and support was personalised.

Risk assessments provided up to date guidance and information for staff. They gave information for how staff could ensure people made informed choices and lived their lives.

Robust recruitment practices were followed. Appropriate checks were completed to ensure only suitable staff were employed. There was an ongoing process of staff recruitment to ensure people were supported safely and effectively. Staff received an induction and were well supported through a programme of regular supervision, spot checks and training. There were enough staff on shift to ensure people received safe care and support.

Staff had training on how to recognise and report potential abuse. There were enough staff on each shift to ensure people were supported safely. Staff received an induction and completed specialist training, to ensure their knowledge remained current.

Right Culture:

People, relatives and staff had confidence in the leadership of the service and felt it was well-led. The manager and provider-maintained oversight of the service through regular conversations with people, relatives and staff, as well as through a programme of quality assurance audits to ensure the service was working to the provider’s policies and procedures.

The provider’s monitoring processes were effective in helping to ensure people consistently received appropriate care and support. Staff knew and understood people and were responsive to their needs. People and those important to them were involved in planning their care.

The manager demonstrated joint working with health professionals which provided specialist support to people, involving their families and other professionals as appropriate. Staff demonstrated good understanding around providing people with person centred care and spoke knowledgably about how people preferred their care and support to be given.

People, relatives and staff felt confident in raising any concerns with the manager and told us any concerns would be listened to and acted upon.

Staff and relatives spoke of a supportive and friendly culture within the service, that was open and approachable and provided people with appropriate 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

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 11 February 2022).

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found the provider had made the required improvements and was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected.

We carried out an announced inspection of this service on 10 and 15 December 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At our last inspection we found breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, risks to people were not effectively managed, and the high use of agency staff had impacted negatively on people.

We undertook this focused inspection to check the service had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for South West Supported Living on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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