We carried out a review of the data available to us about Certitude London Shared Lives on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Certitude London Shared Lives, you can give feedback on this service.
At the last inspection, the service was rated Good.
At this inspection, we found the service remained Good.
Wandsworth Adult Placement Service, known as Shared Lives, provides personal care and accommodation for people of all ages with learning disabilities. People who use the service can access short term, long term and respite care within the family home. They primarily support people with learning disabilities and some have additional needs such as sensory impairments. At the time of the inspection, there were 40 people using the service across the London Boroughs of Wandsworth, Richmond and Hounslow. Not everyone using Wandsworth Adult Placement Service receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.
There was a registered manager at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.
People using the service were highly satisfied with the service and the support they received from their carers. They told us they felt safe living in their carer’s homes. People received appropriate support in relation to their medicines, their health and their dietary requirements.
Care records included how people could be supported to have choice and control. They also included how people made decisions and who to consult if people were unable to make certain decisions. People lived fulfilling, independent lives.
Care plans were person centred and focussed on people as individuals. People's quality of life was considered when developing care plans and how people’s lives could be improved.
Care plans included a one-page profile of the person and their family history. This information was used when finding placements. There was a thorough matching process in place, where time was taken for the person and their potential carer to establish a good relationship before the support was agreed.
Carers told us they had a very close relationship with the people they supported and did not distinguish between them and their own family. The service supported people to develop and maintain relationships that were important to them, whether this was with their carers, families or friends.
Carers and care co-ordinators advocated strongly for people, especially when people did not always get the right support. The provider worked in collaboration with stakeholders to ensure people received the right support.
Care co-ordinators told us they felt well supported and received adequate training which helped them to carry out their roles effectively.
People and their carers were well-informed about what the organisation did, and the structure of the organisation. People were unanimous in their praise of the care co-ordinators.
There was evidence that learning from concerns and incidents was a key contributor to continuous improvement. The provider was proactive in investigating incidents and complaints and used them as a learning opportunity to drive improvements.
We undertook this focused inspection to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements in relation to the breaches found. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for 'Wandsworth Adult Placement Service' on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Wandsworth Adult Placement Service, known as Shared Lives, provides personal care and accommodation for people of all ages with learning disabilities. People who use the service can access short term, long term and respite care within a family home. They also offer an out of hour’s emergency service. They primarily support people with learning disabilities and some have additional needs such as sensory impairments.
There was a registered manager at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.
At our previous inspection we found that mandatory training for shared lives carers was out of date. We also found that some carers did not have their Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) checks renewed every three years and we made a recommendation to the provider at the time to be followed up. At this inspection, we found that improvements had been made in both areas.
A new training portal was used to monitor all the training that shared lives carers had completed and we saw that there had been a big improvement in the numbers of carers that had completed their mandatory training.
We also found that the provider followed up on our recommendation and had ensured that carers had up to date Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) and had a system in place for monitoring when DBS checks were expiring.
This inspection took place on 14 and 22 October 2015 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a shared lives care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in. At our previous inspection on 15 October 2013 we found the provider was meeting regulations in relation to the outcomes we inspected.
Wandsworth Adult Placement Service, known as Shared Lives, provides personal care and accommodation for people of all ages with learning disabilities. People who use the service can access short term, long term and respite care within a family home. They also offer an out of hour’s emergency service. The manager told us that a number of carers now lived on the South Coast and in other parts of the country. At the time of our inspection, there were 27 permanent placements, one respite and one day support. They primarily support people with learning disabilities and some have additional needs such as sensory impairments.
There was a registered manager at the service; however she was not managing the service at the time of our inspection. Another manager was in post and they were in the process of registering with the CQC at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.
People using the service told us that carers looked after them and treated them well. We found carers were familiar with safeguarding procedures and knew what steps to take to keep people safe.
Risk assessments were carried out which helped to ensure that people were able to take part in daily activities in a safe manner. Risk assessments included a risk management plan which identified the level of risk and contained an in-depth management plan.
People received their medicines safely and received ongoing health care support. Guidelines were in place to ensure people received their medicines correctly and carers completed medicine records when they administered medicines. People had health action plans and hospital passports in place which had been recently reviewed to ensure that people’s health needs were met.
The provider had developed a new induction programme which had been implemented for all new staff from June 2015. However, we found that there were gaps in the mandatory training that carers had received.
Staff demonstrated a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), and its application. Carers were aware of the importance of asking people for their consent to care. The provider had submitted applications to the authorising body where restrictions were deemed necessary to keep people safe.
Care records were person centred and developed with the help of an in-house intensive support team. They helped to ensure behaviour support plans were in place and specialist advice was available to support carers.
Quality assurance was central to monitoring the way service was run. A newly recruited head of quality had put in place a number of systems to monitor and measure quality across the organisation. A quality framework had been developed, bringing together a range of quality outcomes from external organisations and implementing them within the service and seeing what areas needed to be improved. Feedback was sought from people in a manner that was accessible to them.
We also found that some carers did not have their DBS checks renewed every three years as per the providers own policies. We have made a recommendation with regards to carrying out DBS checks on members of a carer’s household.
We have found a breach of regulation in relation to staff training. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report..
We observed that staff and people knew one another and were helpful and cheerful. Staff told us that carers and people who use the service were always popping in and they had an open door policy.
People who used the service told us, 'they had been helped to live independently', another person said 'I am no longer shy'.
Carers told us 'it is a job but it's not a job', another said, 'it's great to take a person from shyness to independence', and 'it can be challenging but you get lots of support'.
We spoke to eight people who use the service, three office staff and six carers. We also looked at care plans of people who used the service, management policies, the results of recent surveys and staff training records.
They told us that they were able to see their friends and family when they want to, and with the support of the carer if they needed this.
A number of people spoke about how they like that they can choose what they do each day and who they want to spend time with.
Although the carers told us that they were supported by the agency service we found that a lack of training for some carers may mean that people are at risk.