Croydon Shared Lives

Updated 7 February 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This comprehensive inspection took place on 21 & 26 November 2018. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because this is a Shared Lives service for people. The registered manager and staff are often out in the community during the day; we needed to be sure that someone would be in.

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an expert by experience. An inspector visited the registered location on 21 and 26 November and an expert by experience contacted people and shared lives carers over the phone. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. On this inspection, their area of expertise was care in the community.

Before the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included notifications sent to us by the provider and other information we held on our database about the service such as the Provider Information Return (PIR). Statutory notifications include information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. A PIR is a form that requires providers to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used this information to plan the inspection.

During the inspection we spoke with six people using the service and five shared lives carers. We spoke with other staff including the registered manager, an assistant shared lives coordinator and five shared lives coordinators. We also spoke with four external professionals on the day of the inspection, including a service manager from the safeguarding team, a person centred facilitator, the head of disability services for adults and a manager of the autism service. We contacted eight other professionals after the inspection to hear their feedback, we received a response from four of them.

We reviewed a range of documents and records including; seven care records for people who used the service, four staff records, as well as other records related to the management of the service such as complaints and audits.

Updated 7 February 2019

We inspected Croydon Shared Lives on 21 and 26 November 2018. This was an announced inspection. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because this is a Shared Lives service for people. The registered manager and staff are often out in the community during the day; we needed to be sure that someone would be in. The service provides personal care for people with learning disabilities and mental health. People who use the service can access short and long-term care within the family home of self-employed Shared Lives carers whose work is managed by the staff of the scheme. At the time of the inspection, there were 63 people using the service.

At the last inspection which took place on 10, 11, 14 and 17 December 2015 the service was rated Outstanding. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of outstanding 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 at the service. 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.

An experienced registered manager had been leading the service for several years and she demonstrated her knowledge and enthusiasm for the role and the service.

Feedback from people was overwhelmingly positive with regards to all aspects of their care. They spoke in glowing terms about their carers and the service in general. They said all their needs were met and that carers treated them with the utmost respect and promoted their independence. They said they felt like equal family members in their homes and led active lives in their communities.

The service was committed to delivering a service that was responsive to the diverse needs of people across the borough and had embedded the ethos of promoting equality, diversity and human rights across all areas of the service, from recruitment of carers, the matching process between people and their carers and the care records which underpinned the support that carers gave to people.

Carers demonstrated a deep understanding of people’s needs and preferences and treated them as individuals. There was a through matching process in place which helped to ensure that placements were appropriate, people and their carers were given opportunities to meet and get to know each other before placements were finalised. Arrangement agreements helped to ensure that everyone was aware of their responsibilities and the support that people would be given.

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 only deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment when this was in their best interests, the provider sought legal authorisation to do so under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA).

Staff were offered training which helped them to meet the needs of people using the service. they received regular supervision and appraisal. They spoke positively about the leadership of the service and felt it was an excellent organisation to work for.

The service was exceptional at helping people to express their views so that staff understood their views, preferences, wishes and choices. Have your say meetings were facilitated by an independent person and people were invited and encouraged to speak up in a safe space.

Feedback from health professionals was extremely complimentary. The service worked closely with health and social care professionals and other associated professionals within the council, and external organisations and agencies.