Aspects 2 Supported Living Service

Updated 2 May 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 associated with 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:

This inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Service and service type:

Aspects 2 Supported Living provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting so that they can live in their own homes as independently as possible. Peoples 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.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. A new manager had started three weeks before our inspection and was planning to complete their registration with CQC.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. Inspection site visit activity started on 21 March 2019 and ended on 26 March 2019. We visited the office location on both days to see the manager and office staff and to review care records and policies and procedures. We visited two 'supported living' settings where people resided, to speak with people and staff about their experiences.

What we did:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included previous inspection reports and details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse, serious injuries and deaths. We used information the provider sent us in their Provider Information Return as part of our Provider Information Collection. 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.

During our visit to the service’s office we looked at four people’s care records and files relating to staff development and the management of the service. We spoke with six care staff, the quality manager, senior manager and the new manager. We also spoke with three people and five relatives by telephone and received feedback from one health care professional. We looked at recruitment records, records of incidents and accidents and complaints. We also looked at a selection of audits and quality assurance reports.

Updated 2 May 2019

About the service:

Aspects 2 Supported Living Service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting so that they can live in their own homes as independently as possible. The service was supporting 17 people at the time of our inspection who received personal care and support in seven ‘supported living’ settings.

People’s experience of using this service:

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

The principles and values of Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance were seen to be met in the following ways:

¿ People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

¿ Staff understood how to communicate with people effectively to ascertain and respect their wishes. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible.

¿ People were protected from abuse and discrimination

¿ People were supported to access their local community and supported to prevent becoming socially isolated.

¿ Systems for monitoring the quality and risks in the service had improved. Some time was needed for the provider to complete and evaluate some of their recently introduced improvements.

¿ People told us they were happy living where they did and that care staff were good.

¿ Improvements had been made to care and support plans, staff morale, quality monitoring, managing complaints and medicine management.

¿ Staff had a good understanding of how to keep people safe and their responsibilities for reporting accidents, incidents and concerns.

¿ The service assessed risks to people’s safety and plans were in place to minimise those risks.

¿ We received positive feedback from people, their relatives and health and social care professionals and were told things had improved since our last inspection.

¿ The provider had recruited a new manager who was in the process of registering with CQC and a quality manager who was responsible for monitoring the quality of the service. A service improvement and action plan was in place.

¿ The new manager had sent out surveys to relatives and was due to send out to people supported by the service soon to get their views, seek feedback and make improvements where appropriate.

¿ People were supported by staff who had received the training and support they needed to provide effective care.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection on 27 and 30 July and 1 August 2018 the service was rated as Requires Improvement. (This report was published on 25 September 2018).

Following the last inspection, we asked the provider to complete an action plan to show us what they would do and by when to improve the key questions, 'Is the service safe, effective, caring responsive and well led'? to at least Good.

In September 2018 and March 2019 the provider told us they had changed the management structure and had employed a quality manager to ensure regular audits were completed. An on-going service improvement plan had also been implemented.

Why we inspected: We inspected this service as part of our on-going Adult Social Care inspection programme. This was a planned inspection based on the previous Requires Improvement rating. We also followed up on progress against agreed action plans to address the two breaches in regulation found at our inspection in July and August 2018. Previous CQC ratings and the time since the last inspection were also taken into consideration.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner. We will also ask the provider to send us an improvement plan to show us what they would do and by when to improve the key question, ‘Is the service well led?’ to at least Good.

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