Shared Lives Scheme

Updated 3 March 2020

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Ealing Shared Lives is a shared lives scheme, they recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers (SLC) who offer accommodation and support arrangements for vulnerable adults within their own family homes in the community.

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 48 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.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included information about important events the provider had notified us about that had happened at the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we met the registered manager and service coordinator. We looked at the care records for three people, two staff records, as well as a variety of systems related to the management of the service.

After the inspection

We continued to seek further information and clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found. We spoke with one person who uses the service, one relative, four shared lives carers, and an adult social care professional who had worked with the service.

Updated 3 March 2020

About the service

Shared Lives Scheme, also known as Ealing Shared Lives, is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long-term placements, short breaks and respite care, within shared lives carers’ (SLC) own homes. At the time of our inspection 14 people were using the service, seven of whom only required short, occasional respite care.

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

The provider had arrangements in place to monitor the quality of the service, but these had not always been effective as the records in respect of some people using the service were not always kept up to date. The provider took action when they had identified improvements were required.

Shared lives carers and staff were caring and treated people with respect. Relatives and professionals said they felt people were safe and their care needs were met.

People had support and risk management plans and these were reviewed regularly. Plans reflected people’s physical, mental, emotional and communication needs. Staff were aware of how people wanted to be supported and were responsive to people's individual needs.

People were supported to have healthy diets and their choices were respected. Shared lives carers helped people to access to healthcare services and people were supported to remain healthy.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

There were robust recruitment processes in place to make sure the provider only engaged suitable carers to support people effectively in their own homes. The provider matched carers with people’s support needs and preferences. Carers completed a range of training to help them support people appropriately. Carers felt supported and well supervised by the provider.

The provider had suitable processes in place for responding to complaints and concerns and used these to develop the service.

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

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for this service was good (published 14 July 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

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