Together for Mental Wellbeing Supported Living Branch

Updated 31 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 inspection took place on 9 January 2019 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in.

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service, including any notifications that the provider had sent to CQC. Notifications are information about important events which the service is required to tell us about by law.

During the inspection we spoke with two people asking for their feedback about the service. We also talked to the registered manager, a project manager and three staff members working for the service. We looked at care plans for three people and reviewed records related to staff training and recruitment, safeguarding, incidents and accidents, medicines, audits and other aspects of the service management.

We also contacted one healthcare professional asking to share their experiences and provide us with feedback about the service.

Updated 31 January 2019

Together for Mental Wellbeing Supported Living Service is registered for ‘personal care’. The service provides care and support to people living in ‘supported living’ schemes so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. CQC does not regulate the premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Some people living at Together for Mental Wellbeing Supported Living Service did not receive a regulated activity from the service. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’, which includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 31 people living in three locations and they only provided regulated activity of personal care to nine people.

Together for Mental Wellbeing Supported Living Service provided support for people living with mental health conditions.

At the last inspection, carried out on 4 December 2017, the service was rated Requires Improvement, with Requires Improvement in well-led. We found that the Care Quality Commission was not notified about the important events taking place at the service as required by law.

At this inspection we found that improvements had been made and we rated the service Good.

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 registered manager was managing one of the supported living sites and they were supported by two project managers who managed the other two sites of the service.

Staff followed the service’s procedures to provide immediate support to people should they notice them being at risk to abuse or when incidents and accidents took place. Staff provided references and carried out criminal records checks before they started working with people. People were enabled to manage their medicines independently as necessary. Risks to people's social care needs were appropriately identified and assessed which provided staff with guidance on how to mitigate the potential risks to people. However, it was noticed that risks related to sharps were not recently assessed and that information was missing regarding the severity and likelihood of the identified risks which the registered manager agreed to review as necessary.

People had their care needs identified and the support plans put in place to meet their chosen life styles. People’s health needs were adhered to when they needed medical attention. Staff were provided with effective support and training to help them to carry out their responsibilities as required. The staff team were trained to support people in the decision-making process as required by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). However, some staff were not up-to-date with the required training courses but the service took immediate action to address this.

People spoke positively about the staff team that supported them and noted that staff knew what was important to them. Staff attended to people’s needs with care and kindness. People felt they were respected and had their personal information kept securely. Staff supported people to learn new skills in all areas of their daily lives to increase their independence as much as possible.

Care records were detailed and held information related to the support people required to go out in the community and meet their personal care needs. People were encouraged to share their experiences and provide feedback about the services they received. Staff helped people to gather information about the external resources available for them to use which supported their social inclusion.

People felt that the service was well led and the management team was available for support when they needed it. The culture of the service promoted team working and staff’s involvement in making decisions about the care delivery. Regular audits were carried out to review the quality of the services provided for people and to ensure ongoing monitoring and improvement of the service.