Archived: Somerset Adult Placement

Somerset Adult Placement Scheme provides a shared lives service. The shared lives scheme enables people to receive care and support in a family type situation. Shared lives providers share their family and community life with someone who needs support to live independently.

The scheme's four staff are employed by the service but shared lives providers are self-employed.

The scheme matches people to self-employed carers who support people within their own homes. It gives people the opportunity of experiencing life in a supported family setting either on a long-term basis, or for shorter term respite care.

The scheme provides a service to people with Learning Disabilities or Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

At the time of the inspection the scheme was supporting over 100 people in 60 approved households. The service is able to provide long term care and respite and holiday breaks for people.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.” Registering the Right Support CQC policy

There is a registered manager in post but at the time of the inspection they had been away from the scheme for an extended period of time. 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 the time of the inspection an acting manager from another well-established scheme was providing temporary management cover.

Improvements were needed to make sure the provider was effectively monitoring the quality of the scheme and had action plans in place to make ongoing improvements. Since changes to the county wide provision of services to people with learning disabilities, management of the scheme had become reactive rather than pro-active.

Further improvements were needed to make sure roles and responsibilities of scheme staff were clear and fully understood by shared lives providers and people using the service.

People were not always cared for by shared lives providers who had received up to date training in relevant topics. Scheme staff supported providers in gaining basic knowledge but a number of providers felt training was an area which could be improved.

People’s needs were assessed and, in most cases, they were well matched to shared lives providers. People had opportunities to try out different households to see which suited them best.

People had support plans which gave basic information about their needs and how they wished to be assisted. These plans could be enhanced to show people’s ambitions and how they would be supported to achieve these.

People felt safe and said they had people they could talk with if they had any concerns or were unhappy about any aspect of their support. Scheme staff carried out regular monitoring visits to ensure people’s safety and review the support they received.

People were supported by staff and shared lives providers who were caring and compassionate. People had built strong and trusting relationships which had helped them to build confidence and independence. People we spoke with were enjoying family life.

People had opportunities to take part in a variety of social and work activities in accordance with their abilities and interests. People told us they had opportunities to keep in touch with families and friends and had made new friendships through the scheme.

People were supported to live healthy lifestyles and accessed healthcare professionals according to their individual needs. One person said, “They [shared lives provider] help me to make appointments. She will come with me if I want her to.”

The last inspection of the service was in December 2013. No concerns were raised at that inspection

Somerset Adult Placement Scheme provides a shared lives service. The shared lives scheme enables people to receive care and support in a family type situation. Shared lives providers share their family and community life with someone who needs support to live independently. The scheme’s four staff were employed by the service but shared lives providers were self-employed. In addition to being part of a family environment the scheme also facilitates people to live in supported landlord accommodation where people can live independently with a level of support in accordance with their needs.

The scheme’s staff were responsible for approving and carrying out safety checks on shared lives providers and matching people who required support to shared lives providers. The scheme was able to match people to shared lives providers for long and short term stays.

The scheme provided a service to people who have a learning disability. At the time of the inspection the scheme was providing support to approximately 100 people across 100 placements.

There is a registered manager in post. 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.

The registered manager was passionate about providing a service which was personalised and flexible. The scheme’s staff felt well supported and were committed to providing very individualised support to people. People’s feedback was continually sought to ensure that changes were made in accordance with people’s wishes.

There were systems in place to minimise the risks to people who used the service. Shared lives providers were fully checked by the scheme’s staff and were not able to care for people in their own homes until they had been approved by an independent panel. Shared lives providers said the process was robust; it protected people and made sure they were fully aware of their role.

The scheme employed adequate numbers of staff to monitor and review people’s placements. People were able to spend time alone with their allocated member of staff from the scheme which enabled them to share any worries or concerns. The scheme’s staff were available for advice and support and shared lives providers told us they all felt well supported and were always able to get hold of a member of staff if they needed advice.

The scheme matched people to shared lives providers who shared their interests and values. The matching process worked at each individuals pace and people were fully involved in any decisions about their care and support. One relative told us how their relative had been matched to a family who had the same sporting interests as them which had enabled them to continue to watch their favourite football team play. One person told us “I like dogs. We have two dogs where I live and I like to walk them.”

The monitoring process carried out by the scheme’s staff enabled them to respond to changes in people’s needs and wishes. Where people had specialist health care needs the scheme’s staff ensured shared lives providers were competent to effectively support them.

People lived as part of a family and were involved in family activities and took advantage of community facilities. People had built strong relationships with the shared lives providers they lived or stayed with and spoke affectionately about them. One person told us “I love my carers and they love me.” People had also built friendships with other people who used the service and often mixed socially together. Some shared lives providers supported someone on a long term basis but were also able to accommodate people for short breaks. One person described this as ‘Having a friend to stay.”

People were encouraged to keep in touch with family and friends and some people said they spent time between their ‘two families.’ Relatives said they continued to feel fully involved in all aspects of their relative’s lives.

The registered manager and the scheme’s staff team were committed to continual improvement and had systems in place to seek people’s views and act on suggestions made.

We saw evidence that showed us that staff and carers were well trained and supported to perform their roles.

We saw evidence that the manager monitored and assessed the quality of service provision and people and carers we spoke with told us that if they had any concerns or issues they would be happy to raise them. It was clear from speaking with the manager and the staff that they were proud of the service they provided and the carers reiterated this telling us "the support team are great, always helpful".

We found that the Somerset Shared Lived Scheme had made appropriate arrangements to assess the needs of people using the service and to ensure that this was done safely and appropriately. We saw that people in the scheme were given opportunities to express their wishes and preferences and that this was fundamental to arranging their care and support. Staff at the scheme matched individuals with a home environment that best provides for their needs.

Measures were taken to ensure that staff and carers were honest, trustworthy and treated people who used the service with respect. The homes selected for people were chosen to protect their rights to privacy, dignity, choice, autonomy and safety.