Manchester Shared Lives

Updated 26 January 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 was a comprehensive, announced inspection and was conducted by one adult social care inspector on 11 and 12 December 2018.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. We looked at the statutory notifications the home had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to send to us by law. The service had submitted a contact list which we used when planning the inspection.

During the inspection we spent time at the Manchester Shared Lives office and visited four providers with their permission. We spoke with six citizens who used the service, 10 care providers, two placement workers, the registered manger and the locality strategy manager for learning disabilities.

We looked at records relating to the management of the service such as incident and accident records, two placement worker staff files, placement monitoring forms, provider training records, four care files at the office and a further seven care files in the homes where citizens lived, meeting minutes and quality auditing systems.

Updated 26 January 2019

This inspection took place on 11 and 12 December 2018. We announced the inspection 24 hours in advance so the manager was able to ensure there were staff available at the office to assist us with the inspection.

Shared lives is a model of care where care is provided by approved carers (providers) in their own home or in shared houses with the approved carer living off site. The service matched people (called citizens by the service) with a care need with providers who supported them according to their assessed needs. Providers either supported citizens on a long term basis or for short breaks.

At the time of our inspection the service supported a total of 144 citizens. Not everyone using the Manchester Shared Lives receives a 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. The service was supporting 48 citizens who needed support with ‘personal care’ at the time of our inspection.

The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.

At our last inspection in May 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.

Citizens said they felt safe living with their providers. Citizens and providers said they were well supported by the shared lives team.

Citizen’s care needs, any risks they may face, interests and preferences were assessed and regularly reviewed to ensure they reflected their current support needs. There was a thorough assessment procedure in place for potential providers. Citizens were matched with providers based on these assessments.

Citizen’s finances and medicines were safely managed. Citizens were supported to take part in a range of activities, work placements and holidays, either with their provider or independently.

Provider training had been improved. Placement workers had the training and support to fulfil their roles.

A quality assurance system was in place, with placement workers undertaking regular monitoring visits. New monitoring forms were being introduced to make these visits more robust. The registered manager checked a sample of each placement workers care files prior to their supervision meetings.

Incidents and accidents were reviewed to reduce the risk of further incidents occurring. The few complaints received, both formal and informal, had been responded to appropriately.

The service was engaged with Shared Lives Plus to keep up to date with developments and good practice within the Shared Lives field. Peer reviews by a manager of another local shared lives service had been completed.

Capacity assessments and best interest meetings were completed where required.

The service sought feedback from providers and citizens to look at ways for further improvements to be made through annual surveys and provider focus groups.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.