St Michaels Support & Care

Updated 5 July 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and one 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. For this inspection the expert by experience had an understanding of care for people living with a mental health condition.

Service and service type: This service provides care and support to people living in nine ‘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 did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission at the time of the inspection. However, there was a manager in place that had applied to be registered with the Care Quality Commission. Once registered they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Each of the supported living schemes had a ‘scheme manager’. Scheme managers reported to the manager.

Notice of inspection: We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection visit to ensure the manager would be present and to help arrange visits to where people were receiving the service, as the service is spread across a wide geographical area.

Inspection site visit activity started on 27 March 2019 and ended on 3 April 2019. We visited four schemes including two in Enfield and two in Ilford. We also visited the head office to review paperwork.

What we did: Before the inspection we looked at information that we had received about the service and formal notifications that the service had sent to CQC. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR) which the provider had sent to us. A PIR is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and the improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection: We spoke with 16 members of staff including; the manager, area manager, three scheme managers and 11 support workers. We also spoke with four people that used the service and nine people’s relatives. We looked at seven care records which included care plans and risk assessments. We also reviewed five people’s medicine records, 10 staff files, and other paperwork related to the management of the service including staff training, quality assurance, rota systems and staff recruitment.

Updated 5 July 2019

About the service

St. Michael’s Support and Care provides care and support to people living with a mental health condition. Care is provided in nine supported living schemes across London including Ilford, Watford, North London and Hertfordshire. Each scheme is a residential house within which people have their own flats.

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. At the time of the inspection there were 22 people receiving a regulated activity.

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

People using the service told us that they felt safe and comfortable at the schemes and were well supported. Staff had received appropriate training in ensuring that people were safe and understood how to report any concerns. People’s risks were assessed and guidance given to staff on how to keep people safe. People told us that staff supported them with managing their medicines.

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. Staff received regular support and guidance through supervision and appraisal. People told us that they were well supported to plan, shop and cook their own meals and that staff discussed healthy eating with them.

People received person centred care and people’s care records supported this. Staff understood that each person was different and this was reflected in records, observations and discussions with care staff. There were systems in place for people and relatives to complain or raise concerns. We observed kind and caring interactions between people and staff during the inspection. Staff used respectful language when talking about people both verbally and in records.

There were systems in place to ensure that the manager had good oversight of the nine schemes. People and relatives were encouraged to give feedback using surveys, suggestion boxes and residents’ meetings. Staff were positive about the support they received from the management team. The service worked well in partnership with other agencies for the wellbeing of each person.

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 this service was Requires Improvement, 15 March 2018. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve their rating to at least Good. Since this rating was awarded the provider has altered its legal entity. We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.