Background to this inspection
Updated
24 February 2024
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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Inspection team
This inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type
This service provides care and support to people living in their own houses and flats and 6 supported living settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support. The service also operates as a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
Registered Manager
This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.
At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.
Notice of inspection
This inspection was announced.
We gave a short period notice of the inspection. This is because we wanted to be sure people would be available to speak with us and the registered manager would in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 19 January 2024 and ended on 2 February 2024. We visited the location’s office on 24 January 2024.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We visited one supported living setting and spoke with 1 person. We also spoke with 8 people's relatives on the telephone about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with 5 staff including support workers and the operations manager. We reviewed a range of records. These included 5 people's care records and 8 medicines administration records. We looked at 3 staff recruitment files and other records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance records, training records and action plans.
Updated
24 February 2024
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
About the service
Voyage (DCA) West Midlands is a domiciliary care and supported living service providing personal care. The provider supports people who live in their own homes and in 6 supported living settings. Each setting has its own staff team to support people. At the time of the inspection there were 40 people using the service including people with physical disabilities and learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder.
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 and what we found
Right Support: Risks to people’s safety were understood and staff knew how to keep people safe. People received their medicines as prescribed. 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. People were supported to minimise the risk of cross infection.
Right Care: Staff could recognise abuse and poor care and were clear on how to report any incidents or concerns to keep people safe. Staff were matched to people they supported, and hours were agreed with commissioners of peoples care to ensure they had sufficient staff to support people. People received care which was person centred and had plans in place to guide staff in how to support people.
Right Culture: There was a learning process in place to understand when things went wrong and prevent incidents from happening again. The provider ensured there was an open and transparent culture in the home and had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service people received. Feedback was sought from people, relatives and staff about 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 the service at the previous premises was good, (published on 10 November 2017.)
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding.
We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘All inspection reports and timeline’ link for Voyage (DCA) West Midlands on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.