Banya Family Placement Agency Ltd Also known as Banya Shared Lives Scheme

Updated 1 October 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

One inspector and an Expert by Experience carried out this inspection. 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

Banya Family Placement Agency Ltd 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 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.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals 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 the registered manager. We also spoke with five shared life family carers. We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and quality of the service were reviewed.

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as video calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation. Inspection activity started on 30 August 2022 and ended on 8 September 2022.

Updated 1 October 2022

About the service

Banya Family Placement Agency Ltd is also known as Banya Shared Lives Scheme. The 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.

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

People were happy with the care and support they received from the service and from the carers and their families they lived with. People were supported safely with medicines. All medicines records were completed accurately and were reviewed on a regular basis to ensure people had their medicines as expected. People were involved in their care and support assessments and were asked for their views of the service and they gave their opinions freely. Discussions about people’s care and support were recorded and given to people in a way that they could understand. Staff supported people to actively maintain their own health and wellbeing and to access health prevention services when this was required. The registered manager understood current infection prevention and control practices to ensure people were kept safe and risks from infection reduced.

Right Care

The registered manager ensured there were enough suitably skilled and experienced carers to support people and to meet their individual needs. Carers understood what abuse was and followed the provider’s safeguarding guidance. They completed training to help them protect people from potential harm and to report any concerns they had about people’s safety. Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people and carers understood and respected people’s cultural needs.

Right culture

The registered manager created an environment and culture that was transparent and open to new ways of working. The service was reviewed and monitored routinely and there were ongoing improvements to the service delivery and care people received. People received good quality care and support from carers who were consistently supported by the office-based staff and the registered manager. The provider arranged for people, carers and staff to provide feedback about the service. The service provided information in an accessible format so people could understand the information they were given and respond to it. The service maintained relationships with external organisations who were able to give advice about people's care and support needs. Staff were aware of best practice guidance for supporting people with a learning disability and/or autistic 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 requires improvement (published 3 May 2019) and there was a breach of regulation. 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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 11 February 2019. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they 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 Banya Family Placement Agency Ltd 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.