Leicester City Council Shared Lives Service

Updated 11 October 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. 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type

Leicester City Council Shared Lives is a shared lives scheme, they recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers (SLCs) who offer accommodation and support arrangements for vulnerable adults within their own family homes in the community.

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 a short period notice of the inspection because we needed to make arrangements to speak with people in their own homes.

Inspection activity started on 21 August 2019 and ended on 2 September 2019]. We visited the office location on 21 August 2019.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we reviewed information we had received about the service. This included details about incidents the provider must tell us about, such as any serious injuries to people. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. However, we did look at the previous PIR and we took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection. We contacted external professionals to ask for their feedback on their experience of the service. Their feedback was positive.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service and three SLCs about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager and one member of staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and medication records. Staff files are kept centrally and following our visit we received email confirmation from Leicester City human resources department staff had suitable recruitment records. We looked at staff supervision records and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

After the inspection

The registered manager continued to provide us with supporting evidence by email following the inspection site visit.

Updated 11 October 2019

About the service

Leicester City Shared Lives Service is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long-term placements, short breaks and respite care, within shared lives carers (SLC) own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 23 long term placements and 44 carers.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found:

We saw good examples of how the service and SLCs supported people to remain safe. This was through providing staff and SLCs with bespoke safeguarding training. Staff and SLCs promoted positive risk taking, ensuring people had maximum control over their lives.

There was a robust recruitment process for both staff and SLCs. There was also a thorough matching process to ensure people were placed with SLCs who had the correct skills and lifestyle to suit the person’s needs. The registered manager promoted an open culture within the service to ensure all accidents and incidents were reported. This was seen as an opportunity to learn and improve the service.

People received person-centred care, designed around their individual needs. They were encouraged to learn new skills which increased their confidence and were supported to identify their goals and achieve them. If people wanted to be active in the local community, they were supported and encouraged to achieve this. We saw many examples where people’s lives had been transformed by living with SLCs.

People were well supported to maintain a healthy balanced diet. This had resulted for some people in improved long term health. Where people had long-term, health needs they were supported to attend healthcare appointments and maintain their independence.

People's privacy, dignity and independence was promoted. Leicester City Shared Lives staff and SLCs understood the Equality Act and supported people's diverse needs.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff and SLCs supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support by promoting choice and control, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

People told us staff and SLCs were kind and caring often reflecting on how their lives had improved since moving in with their SLC. We saw examples of how people had become part of the SLC’s life and how this had improved and enriched the person’s life.

The service had a comprehensive complaints process and were proactive in responding to people’s complaints and concerns. People told us they felt listened to and able to speak to both staff and their SLC. The service ensured people had information in a format they were able to understand and access.

The service was well-led and the registered manager understood their responsibility to keep CQC informed of any issues within the service. The registered manager promoted an open culture ensuring a person centred and high quality service was delivered. The service was a member of the national organisation for shared lives, Shared Lives Plus. This ensured staff and SLCs remained up to date with new ideas and innovations championed nationally. The registered manager encouraged staff, people and SLCs to be involved in developing the service. Staff and SLCs were very proud of the work they did and the improvements they made in people’s lives.

The last rating for this service was Good (published 7 December 2016).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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

Follow up: We will continue to review information we receive about the service until we return to visit as part of our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner