YourLife (Littlehampton)

Updated 20 February 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations under the Act, 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 team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type:

YourLife (Littlehampton) are a domiciliary care agency (DCA). Not everyone using Yourlife (Littlehampton) receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 72 hours' notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure the management would be in the office. We visited the office on 29 January 2019 to see the registered manager and to look at the records.

What we did:

Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law. We met with two people and two relatives in the communal areas to gather their views about the support received. During the office site visit we looked at records, which included two people's care and medicines records. We checked training records for all the staff employed. We looked at a range of records about how the service was managed. We also spoke with the registered manager, the duty manager and four care workers.

Updated 20 February 2019

About the service:

YourLife (Littlehampton) provides personal care to older persons in a setting called 'assisted living' where people have their own privately-owned apartment in a purpose-built development. The assisted living scheme had communal areas such as a lounge, restaurant, hairdressers, laundry room and beauty therapy room which people could use.

At the time of this inspection 45 people lived in the development. At the time of the inspection only four people received personal care from the service. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. YourLife (Littlehampton) also provided and organised activities for people. People were able to purchase other services which were not personal care such as meals in the restaurant which was not provided by YourLife (Littlehampton).

More information is in Detailed Findings below.

People’s experience of using this service:

• The service was totally committed to assisting people to pursue their interests which created a sense of belonging and purpose. A range of activities were on offer to ensure a variety of opportunities which reflected people's wishes and interests. The registered manager was passionate about providing person centred care and this was reflected in every aspect of the service. People and relatives were empowered to help run and improve the service. People knew how to complain and told us where they raised concerns the management acted promptly to address these.

• People told us they received safe care. They were supported by consistent and suitably trained staff. People received support to take their medicines safely and as prescribed. Risks to people's well-being and environmental safety were recorded and updated when the circumstances changed. The lessons were learnt where appropriate to improve the service further.

• People's rights to make their own decisions were respected. They were supported to access health services if needed. People's dietary needs were assessed and where required people were supported with their meals.

• People received caring and compassionate support from the staff. The management team led by example and staff referred to people in a caring way. People were complimentary about staff and about positive, caring relationships they were able to form with the staff. Staff respected people's privacy and dignity and people were supported to be as independent as possible.

• The service was managed by a registered manager who had a clear vision on the quality they wanted to provide. There was a clear staffing structure and staff were aware of their roles and responsibilities. The provider had a number of quality assurance systems in place and there was a focus on further development. The service worked well with other partners and organisations.

Rating at last inspection:

Good (report published 11 May 2016). At this inspection we found the service continued to be Good, and in some areas improved to Outstanding.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.