Social Life Opportunities (SoLo)

Updated 11 November 2022

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

Two inspectors carried out the inspection site visit. A third inspector made telephone calls to relatives of people who used the service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to adults and children living in their own homes and three ‘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 service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

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

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave a short period notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 06 October 2022 and ended on 14 October 2022.

We visited the office on 13 October 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. We 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 four relatives about their experience of the care provided to their family members. We spoke with six members of staff including the nominated individual, the registered manager, the children’s service manager, the assistant service manager, a support worker and an administrator. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people's care records and two people’s medication records. We looked at three staff recruitment files, staff training records and records associated with the provider's quality monitoring systems.

Updated 11 November 2022

About the service

Social Life Opportunities (SoLo) - HSCA is a domiciliary care agency which is registered to provide personal care and support to people in their own homes including people living in supported living settings. Supported living settings support people to live in their own home as independently as possible. At the time of our inspection the service supported five adults and three children with personal care.

Not everyone who used the service received 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.

People’s experience of using the 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

Known risks associated with people’s care were not always well-managed. Some people’s risk assessments did not provide staff with the information they needed to keep people safe. The model of care and settings maximised people’s choice and independence. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff were recruited safely and there were sufficient staff to provide people’s planned care and support.

Right care

People received personalised care and support from staff they knew and who understood their needs. Relatives had no concern about their family members safety and staff understood their responsibilities to keep people safe. Staff followed safe infection prevention practice in people's homes.

Right culture

Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service and to drive improvement were not in place. The provider’s policies and procedures were not always effective or were not followed. An additional manager was being recruited to strengthen the management team structure to help drive improvements. Staff felt valued and supported by a registered manager who promoted an open and inclusive culture. The management team and staff worked in partnership with other professionals to achieve good outcomes for people.

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 Good (published 02 November 2018).

Why we inspected

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

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 good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. The provider was in breach of regulations in relation to risk management and governance at the service. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed. We have identified breaches in relation to managing individual risk and the way the service was managed.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.