Live & Learn

Updated 20 March 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:

• The inspection was completed by two inspectors.

Service and service type:

• This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own home. It specialises in providing care to children and young adults with a disability.

• 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 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.

What we did:

• Before our inspection we reviewed information we held about the service. This included notifications the provider is required by law to send us about events that happen within the service. Due to technical problems, the provider was not able to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

• We spoke to one family member of a person who used the service and one member of staff.

• During our inspection we spoke with the registered manager. We looked at records which included two care plans, two staff files and other records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 20 March 2019

About the service:

Live and Learn is a small domiciliary care service based in the London Borough of Sutton. The service specialises in providing personal care to children and young adults with a learning disability. At the time of our inspection there was one adult and one child using the service.

Not everyone using Live and Learn 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.

People’s experience of using this service:

• The provider had continued to make improvements since our last inspection in April and May 2017.

• Staff received better training and continued to receive supervision and support to help them with their work.

• The provider continued to improve the records they kept and the checks they did to make sure people received good, safe care. This included new policies and procedures to make sure staff were up to date with legal requirements.

• People continued to receive safe care by staff who knew the risks people faced. Staff supported people to be independent while keeping them safe.

• The provider reviewed and updated support plans for the person and child using the service. These were personalised and gave staff guidance on the support they required to have their needs, wishes and choices met.

• People and children continued to be protected from abuse. Staff received refresher training in safeguarding adults and children and were aware of the reporting procedures to follow if they witnessed or suspected abuse had occurred.

• People and children continued to participate in a variety of social and recreational activities that met their social and physical needs. They were encouraged to eat and drink sufficient amounts to maintain good health.

• Staff continued to support people and children with their medicine safely .

• The provider and staff worked with healthcare professionals to make sure people and children had the support they needed, when they needed it.

• Relatives told us they thought the staff were good. People and children received support from the same staff, this meant there was a continuity of care and staff knew people and children’s needs well.

• The service met the characteristics for a rating of “good” in all the key questions we inspected. Therefore, our overall rating for this service after our inspection was “good”.

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

Rating at last inspection:

• At our last inspection the service was rated as “requires improvement”. Our last inspection report was published on 1 June 2017.

Why we inspected:

• This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor this service to ensure people receive safe, compassionate and high-quality care. We will re-inspect in line with our schedule for those services rated as good. We will inspect sooner if we think there is a risk to people.