Shared Lives Adult Placement Scheme

Shared Lives Adult Placement Scheme is a service offering short breaks, personalised day services (‘Compass’ scheme) or a full-time home to adults with learning disabilities or complex health conditions. Shared Lives carers are self-employed people who take someone into their own homes either permanently or temporarily to give the person’s relatives a break. This enables the person to join in with the shared lives workers’ family and community life. Shared lives carers are recruited and supported by a team of local authority social workers based in Cottingley near Bradford. We refer to Shared Lives carers as 'carers' throughout this report. Shared Lives also include a service called 'Time Out', which offers family carers relief by supporting the person who needs care for a few hours in their own home or their own locality.

Not everyone using Shared Lives 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.

At our last inspection in July 2016, we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Carers and service staff were recruited safely. Carers were offered training relevant to the needs of the people they were supporting. Shared Lives staff received training and updates and were supported by the registered manager, receiving formal supervision where they could discuss their ongoing development needs.

People who used the service and their relatives told us carers were helpful, attentive and caring.

Care plans were up to date and detailed what care and support people wanted and needed. Risk assessments were in place and showed what action had been taken to mitigate any risks which had been identified. Appropriate referrals were being made to the safeguarding team when this had been necessary.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were involved and consulted about all aspects of their care and support, where possible, including suggestions for activities.

People’s healthcare needs were being met and medicines were managed safely.

Carers knew about people’s dietary needs and preferences which were well documented in care records.

People were supported to access the local community and take part in their choice of activities.

People told us they knew how to complain. Records showed complaints received had been dealt with appropriately.

People told us the registered manager and social work team were approachable and supportive. The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of care provided and where issues were identified they acted to make improvements.

We found all the fundamental standards were being met. Further information is in the detailed findings below.

Shared Lives Adult Placement Scheme was a service run by City of Bradford Metropolitan council offering short breaks or a full time home to adults with learning disabilities or complex health conditions. Shared Lives carers were people who take someone into their own homes either permanently or temporarily to give the person’s relatives a break. This enabled the person to join in with the shared lives workers’ family and community life. Shared lives workers were recruited and supported by a team of local authority social workers based in Cottingley near Bradford.

Shared Lives included a service called 'Time Out', giving relief to family or friends who offered substantial amounts of care to adults with high level support needs or long term illness or disabilities. The service’s primary aim was to offer family carers relief by supporting the person who needed care for a few hours in their own home or their own locality.

The service had a registered manager in place at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons.’ Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was present throughout the inspection.

The registered manager had a robust quality assurance system in place to monitor and improve their current ways of working. People told us they had confidence in the management and that all concerns were dealt with quickly.

The social workers were skilled and experienced in co-ordinating the scheme and were appropriately supported in carrying out their roles. They monitored the placements closely and had a good awareness of how to safeguard people from harm and abuse.

Robust processes were followed to recruit and assess people who applied to become shared lives carers and to review the suitability of the existing carers.

There were enough staff to deliver the service safely and people were provided with continuity of care. All staff were given training and support to meet the needs of the people they cared for, including regular opportunities to meet the social workers involved.

People and their relatives told us they knew how to complain if they wished. The service had a complaints policy in place and information about how to complain was given to people when they started the service. The service had no current complaints at the time of the inspection.

Shared lives workers and other staff promoted personal safety whilst respecting people's freedom to exercise their independence and take risks. There was effective liaison between staff, social workers and other external professionals to help maintain placements.

Each person was encouraged and supported to make choices and decisions about their care and living arrangements. Where people did not have the mental capacity to make important decisions, staff at the scheme worked with other professionals to check that decisions made were in their best interests.

We found that care and support was safely planned to minimise risks to people's wellbeing. However not all identified risk had been assessed.

People were supported to stay healthy, have a balanced diet, and manage their own medicines wherever possible. Detailed support and care records were drawn up which reflected the person’s choices and needs. People were supported and encouraged to take part in activities they enjoyed and to pursue other hobbies.

People who used the service and their relatives were happy with the care and support provided. They told us the shared lives carers were kind and caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People were matched with supportive carers who enabled them to lead active lives, take part in enjoyable activities and develop their life skills.

There was a positive culture and the team worked inclusively with people using the service, the shared lives carers, and other professionals. Systems were in place to obtain and act on feedback, make improvements to the quality of the service and learn from incidents.

Shared Lives included a service called 'Time Out' which offers relief to family or friends who offered substantial amounts of care to adults with high level support needs or long term illness or disabilities. The services primary aim was to offer carers relief by supporting the person who needed care for a few hours in their own home or their own locality.

We asked seven families of people who used the Adult Placement Scheme if they were happy with the service provided they said 'Yes and they love it', 'They are really good with her'. They told us they would recommend the service '150 per cent' and 'I would, we've had no problems it's been really good for us'.

We met with three relatives and six staff from Time Out, they told us the service was 'Excellent' and both relatives and staff said that the staff became 'Part of the family'.

We found staff sought people's agreement and people were provided with the opportunity to make decisions about their care and treatment. People's care and treatment needs were assessed before a service was offered and people had experienced care and support which had met their needs. Shared Lives Placement Scheme also had effective systems in place which identified assessed and managed the risks to the health, safety and welfare of people who used the service and others.