Archived: Adult Placement

Adult Placement provides care and support for people over the age of 18 years who need support due to age, illness or disability. Care is provided by approved carers in their own home or, in some circumstances the person's own home. Carers provide support to people on either a long-term basis, for short-breaks (respite) or for day support. The service forms part of Aspire: for Intelligent Care and Support C.I.C and is located in Salford, Greater Manchester.

On the day of the inspection Adult Placement, Salford were supporting 130 people.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

The service was rated as good at the last inspection in March 2016. 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. However, we identified some gaps in training and made a recommendation that the provider review their induction and training package to ensure that carers have sight of recent best practice to care for people appropriately.

The service had been developed and designed in line with the principles that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance; these values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. This policy asserts that people with learning disabilities and autism using a service should live as ordinary a life as any citizen. This policy can be found on the Care Quality Commission website.

The registered manager and staff understood their role and responsibilities to keep people safe from harm. Risks were assessed and plans put in place to keep people safe. Pre-employment checks were carried out on staff to assess their suitability to support vulnerable people.

People's needs were assessed before using the service and on an ongoing basis to reflect any changes in need.

People who used the service and their relatives told us care staff were kind, caring and helpful and treated them with respect. All the people/relatives we spoke with felt the care staff were approachable, listened to them and acted in accordance with their wishes. People we spoke with told us staff respected their privacy and dignity and felt they encouraged them to be as independent as possible.

Staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA), they told us that if they had any concerns about the capacity of a person using the service, they would contact the office. We saw where people lacked capacity this was clearly recorded within their care plan.

The service was aware of equality and diversity and ensured any support people needed with their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and culture was provided with empathy.

People’s communication needs were tailored to each person to ensure their wishes were known.

Adult Placement provides care and support for people over the age of 18 years who need help due to age, illness or disability. Care is provided by approved carers in their own home or, in some circumstances the person's own home. Carers provide support to people on either a long-term basis, for short-breaks (respite) or for day support. The service provides support to approximately 110 people with varying support requirements. The service forms part of Aspire: for Intelligent Care and Support C.I.C and is located in Salford, Greater Manchester.

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. The registered manager was not present on the day of our inspection and in their absence; staff from the Adult Placement support team facilitated our inspection.

People using the service told us they felt safe and that the carers treated them well. Carers also had an understanding of safeguarding and how to report concerns. They also told us they had completed relevant training as part of their role.

Carers went through an intensive recruitment process before becoming approved as an adult placement ‘carer’ The decision to employ carers was done at panel meetings which included discussions about the suitability of each carer and how they could be matched appropriately to the person requiring support.

We found medication was given to people safely, with records maintained by carers when administered.

The carers we spoke with felt they had the appropriate training and support to carry out their role, although this was not recorded on a training matrix by the service. We discussed this with the co-ordinator who told us they would look to improve how this was recorded.

Carers told us how they supported people to maintain good nutritional intake and promote healthy eating. The people we spoke with told us they enjoyed the foods they ate.

People said they felt treated with dignity and respect by carers, who were also able to describe how they aimed to do this when delivering care. Carers also described how they aimed to promote people’s independence.

Carers spoke favourably about the people they cared for and it became clear that very caring relationships had been developed. People were comfortable around carers who they considered to be family and friends.

People had care plans in place which provided carers with clear guidance about how to support people, although the service co-coordinator acknowledged that reviews had fallen behind. They told us they would improve this following the inspection.

People said they enjoyed participating in activities within the local community and had enough to keep them occupied.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of service being provided. These included checks of medication and that carers were still competent to carry out their work.

Carers spoke favourably of the service and told us they felt it was well managed. They said they were in regular contact with the team and were able to report concerns where necessary.