Essex Shared Lives

The Essex Shared Lives scheme is Essex County Council’s ‘in-house’ service for Shared Lives. Although the scheme has been operational since 2007, it is only since June 2021 that the scheme was integrated within Essex County Council.

The shared lives scheme provides people aged 18 years and over with long-term placements, short breaks and respite care, within shared lives carers [SLC] own homes. At the time of our inspection the Essex Shared Lives scheme was supporting 45 adults. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. When we inspected, 24 out of 45 people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care.

Since January 2022, the term 'shared lives carers' was no longer being used by the Essex Shared Live scheme. Throughout this report we have used the term shared live hosts.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The provider had suitable arrangements in place to assess, monitor and manage the quality of the service and to identify where improvements were needed. Following the service being transferred to Essex County Council in June 2021 from another provider, the above arrangements identified there were significant gaps in record keeping relating to people using the service and existing shared live hosts.

The above related to people’s support plans, risk management strategies, Medication Administration Records [MAR] and included training shortfalls for shared live hosts. However, there was no evidence to demonstrate this impacted on the support being provided for people using the service. Steps were being taken by Essex Shared Lives to address these shortfalls.

People told us they were safe and very happy with the care and support received. People told us they were encouraged to take positive risks to support their independence. Where prospective shared live hosts were being recruited, this process was robust. Safe recruitment practices were in place to employ staff to the Essex Shared Lives scheme. Staff employed by the provider were provided with training opportunities and received regular supervision. Where MAR forms were readily available, these were completed to a good standard.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and were supported to make their own decisions. People told us their shared live hosts were kind and caring. Positive relationships were developed and included extended family members. People were supported to have their nutritional needs met. Shared live hosts supported individuals to access healthcare services as needed.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us in May 2021 and this is the service’s first inspection.

Why we inspected

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.