Chiltern Jigsaw Resource Centre

Updated 2 August 2023

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 1 inspector, 2 bank inspectors 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

Chiltern Jigsaw Resource Centre is registered for personal care and provides care and support to people living in ‘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.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. Two new managers were in post, and both had submitted applications. We are currently assessing their applications.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before 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 spoke with 6 people who used the service, 6 relatives, 9 health and social care professionals, service director, operations manager, manager, 3 team leaders, 8 support staff. We reviewed a variety of records which related to people's care and the running of the service. These records included care files of ten people using the service, 6 staff employment records, policies and procedures, maintenance, and quality monitoring records.

After the inspection

We received feedback from 9 care professionals.

Updated 2 August 2023

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 Care Quality Commission (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

Chiltern Jigsaw Resource Centre provides a supported living service for people with a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder. The service provided care and support to people living in 5 small ‘supported living’ settings, where people were supported to live as independently as possible. 1 of them was in Harrow and 2 were in Barnet. At the time of the inspection there were 25 people using the service, of which 20 were receiving personal care.

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

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.

Right support:

The service supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence so they had control over their own lives. The service gave people care and support in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished, and well-maintained environment that met their sensory and physical needs. People had a choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Right care:

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. People who had individual ways of communicating, using body language, sounds, Makaton (a form of sign language), pictures and symbols could interact comfortably with staff and others involved in their treatment because staff had the necessary skills to understand them. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

Right culture:

People received good care and support because trained staff and specialists could meet their needs and wishes. Staff knew and understood people well. People and those important to them, including families, were involved in planning their care. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

They had identified the need to develop a better link with their partners, including families and significant others of the people they supported. They had developed partner liaison single point of contact within the organisation that was going to focus on ensuring that concerns were correctly identified and addressed in a timely manner.

People lived safely and free from unwarranted restrictions because the provider assessed, monitored, and managed safety well. The assessments provided information about how to support people to ensure risks were reduced but did not limit people’s right to take reasonable risks.

The service had enough staff, including for one-to-one support for people. The numbers and skills of staff matched the needs of people using the service.

People received their medicines safely. They were supported by staff who followed systems and processes to administer, record and store medicines safely. We observed from records people received their medicines on time.

People were protected from the risks associated with poor infection control because the service used effective infection, prevention and control measures to keep people, staff and visitors were safe.

People's health needs were met. The care files we looked at included details of health action plans and management of day-to-day healthcare needs.

There was a process in place to report, monitor and learn from accidents and incidents.

Governance processes were effective and helped to assess, monitor, and check the quality of the service provided to people. Audits had been carried out on a range of areas critical to the delivery of care.

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 (published 28 August 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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.