Shared Lives South West

Updated 5 March 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider was 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.

Inspection team: The inspection was undertaken by one social care inspector on 7, 8 and 10 January 2019 and an expert by experience who made telephone calls to people on 10 and 11 January 2019. 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: Shared Lives is a service registered to provide personal care to people living with Shared Lives carers in a family environment. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 292 people with long term placements and 115 people with short breaks.

Due to the size of the service and the large geographical area covered by Shared Lives, the service has two office sites; the main office in Newton Abbot in Devon and a satellite office in Scorrier, Cornwall. The service had three registered managers in post. 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Notice of inspection: We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to ensure a registered manager would be present to facilitate the inspection and to arrange visits and contact with people using the service.

What we did:

We used information the service sent us in the Provider Information Return. (PIR) This is information we require providers to send us at least annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We looked at information we held about the service including notifications they had made to us about important events. We also reviewed other information we held about the service.

During the inspection we visited both office sites and spoke with the chief executive officer, all three registered managers, seven care co-ordinators and three members of the administrative staff. We met nine people and nine carers in their homes. We spoke with a further two people and 14 relatives over the telephone. We reviewed people's care records; the service’s policies and procedures; records relating to the management of the service, and staff and carer recruitment, assessment and training records. We also received positive feedback from six health and social care professionals.

Updated 5 March 2019

About the service:

Shared Lives South West (referred to throughout the report as Shared Lives) is registered to provide personal care for adults who may have learning disabilities, mental health needs or physical disabilities, and for older people. Placements are made on a short or long-term basis, including respite and a holiday service, with people living with their carer in their home as part of the family. The service also supports parents with learning disabilities and provides a ‘home from hospital’ service. Shared Lives South West provides services across Devon and Cornwall and is a registered charity and a not for profit company.

Throughout the report the term carer(s) is used to identify the Shared Lives care workers as this is the term used by the service and familiar to the people being supported.

People’s experience of using this service:

• We found the service remained outstanding in the personalised support provided to people and carers. Without exception people told us they felt very much part of the family. They shared family celebrations and the family celebrated important events in their lives. One person told us, “We’re a family” and another said, “It’s fantastic.”

• People were safe and received the supported they needed to gain new skills and confidence to become more independent. Relatives told us they had complete faith and trust in the carers and Shared Lives staff. Their comments included, “I completely trust them”, and “From the word go, I was reassured that there was someone there to look after him.”

• People were fully involved in decisions about their care and support. The service regularly reviewed people’s needs to ensure these were fully understood and support plans reflected this. Where necessary health and social care professionals were involved in supporting people and their carers with guidance and advice about how to meet people’s support needs. The service was able to demonstrate the positive impact Shared Lives support has had on people.

• The service had a strong commitment to social inclusion. People told us of the support they received to improve their skills by going to college, developing hobbies and gaining employment.

• The service valued and respected people’s relationships with others.

• Carers described the service as excellent in the support it provided to them. The thorough assessment process and ongoing training ensured people were supported by carers who had the skills and knowledge to support them, as well as sharing their interests and hobbies. The ‘matching’ process ensured the success of placements.

• The service and carers had been recognised through various care agencies as being ‘exceptional’, having recently won three awards for the caring, compassionate and respectful support provided.

• The service was exceptionally well-led. The management team promoted shared decision making, with no one member of staff taking a decision alone which affected people and carers. Staff demonstrated a pride in working for the organisation: they were positive advocates for people and carers.

• The service used reflective practice to review how well people and carers were being supported and whether any more could be done. There was a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

Rating at last inspection: the service was previously inspected in May and June 2016 and was rated good overall with the key question of ‘Is the service responsive?’ rated outstanding. The report was published on 6 August 2016.

Why we inspected: this announced inspection was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the information we receive about the service until we return to visit in line with our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.