Bury Shared Lives

Updated 8 December 2022

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

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors, a medicines inspector and an Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This service 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. This means that they and the provider 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

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because 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. We sought feedback from the local authority. 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

During the inspection we received feedback from 4 carers and 3 people about their experience of the care and support provided by the service. We spoke with 3 staff including the director of care, registered manager, and a shared lives support officer.

We also reviewed a range of records. We looked at care records for two people and multiple records about people’s medicines. We reviewed 2 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance audits and training records were reviewed.

Updated 8 December 2022

About the service

Bury Shared Lives is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long-term placements, short breaks and respite care within shared lives carer’s own homes. 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 this inspection, the service was providing a regulated activity for 8 people.

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

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.

Right Support

Medicines were not always managed safely, however the registered manager provided assurance they would address the issues we identified. People were supported to play an active role in maintaining and improving their health and wellbeing. Shared lives carers understood the ethos of the service and gave people choices about their lives and care. Carers were up to date with all necessary training. Discussions about people's care and support were recorded and information was given to people in a way that they could understand.

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.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care from their shared lives carers. Shared lives carers protected and respected people's privacy and dignity. People's cultural needs were respected, and carers provided culturally appropriate care. People were supported to develop skills and independence at their individual level, varying from growing in confidence with cooking and household tasks to moving into more independent living arrangements.

Right Culture

The provider evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals as appropriate. The registered manager, staff and carers worked hard to instil a culture of care and good teamwork. Everyone valued and promoted people’s individuality, protected their rights and enabled them to develop and flourish. There was an embedded culture of people being at the heart of 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

This is the first inspection of this newly registered service.

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, which will help inform when we next inspect.