Creative Support - Telford & Shropshire

Updated 13 January 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 team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in 5 ‘supported living’ settings, so that 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 a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 72 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 28 November 2022 and ended on 1 December 2022. We visited the location’s office on 28 November 2022 and 30 November 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and since they had changed address. 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, a support co-ordinator and 3 care staff. We also spoke with 4 people who received support from the service and 3 relatives.

We looked at 4 people’s care records and reviewed 5 people’s medicines administration records (MARs). We also viewed three staff files and documentation related to the governance of the service.

The provider sent us further documentation we had requested following the site visit including training records, recruitment documents and audits.

Updated 13 January 2023

About the service

Creative Support – Telford & Shropshire is a supported living service providing personal care to 10 people living in their own homes within Telford and Shropshire. The service provides support to autistic people and people living with learning disabilities. People receive varying levels of support, some up to 24 hours per day.

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 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:

Staff did not always follow robust procedures in place to ensure medicines were managed safely. However, following one shortfall being identified during inspection, immediate action was taken by the registered manager to reduce the risk of reoccurrence. The principles of STOMP (stop over medicating people with learning difficulties) were applied when people were prescribed ‘as required’ medicines. People were supported by a sufficient number of staff to meet their needs safely.

Right Care:

Staff understood how to protect people from abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. Risk assessments were in place to guide staff in how to manage risk to people and to ensure they received care in a way that mitigated that risk. Where appropriate, staff encouraged people to take positive risks.

Right Culture:

The registered manager promoted a person-centred culture at the service that staff followed when supporting people to improve their quality of life. People were supported by staff who understood how to empower them and promote positive outcomes. The provider promoted a learning environment where actions were taken when needed to improve the quality of the service provided to people.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

This service was registered with us on 27 January 2020 and this was the first inspection at the new premises following a change of address. The last rating for the service at the previous premises was requires improvement (published 10 July 2019) and there were breaches 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

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about medicines administration and management. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

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.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe section of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Creative Support – Telford & Shropshire 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.