South Supported Living Service

Updated 16 March 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector 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

This service provides care and support to people living in 8 ‘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.

Registered Manager

This provider 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. Registered managers and providers 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 24 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.

Inspection activity started on 2 February 2023 and ended on 8 February 2023. We visited the location’s office on 2 February 2023. We visited people in 3 supported living settings, with their consent, on 5 and 8 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 11 people who used the service and 9 people’s relatives about their experience of the care provided. We observed how staff interacted with people. We spoke with the registered manager and 7 members of the support team.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 3 people’s care and medication records. We looked at records related to the recruitment and training for 3 staff. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 16 March 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 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

South Supported Living Service provides support and personal care to people with a learning disability and/or autism living in 9 shared houses in Barrow, Ulverston and the surrounding areas. People had their own bedrooms and shared facilities such as communal areas, bathrooms and kitchens.

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 our inspection the service supported 21 people with their personal care.

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

Right Support:

People had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life because staff focused on their strengths and promoted what they could do. People told us they were supported to gain skills and independence and were proud of their achievements.

People were supported by staff to pursue their interests in their homes and in the community. People told us they enjoyed a variety of activities in the local community. A relative told us, “[Relative] has got more independence and the staff are good at making sure they get activities and lead as ‘normal’ a life as they can with plenty of input.”

Staff supported people to identify and achieve their aspirations and goals. People were active members of their community and staff valued their achievements.

People had a choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms. 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.

Staff enabled people to access routine and specialist health and social care support to ensure their health and wellbeing. They supported people with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcomes.

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 supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. They communicated with people in ways that met their needs.

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 were safe and protected from abuse. 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.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. People liked the staff who supported them. One person said, “[Staff member] is nice, she helps me.”

People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication 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 care and support because staff had the necessary skills to understand them.

People’s care and support plans reflected their range of needs and gave good guidance for staff on how to support them. This promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life.

Staff and people cooperated to assess risks people might face. A relative told us, “[Staff] are aware of what dangers and difficulties [relative] faces and they deal with them.” Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Right Culture:

People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff. Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity.

People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to the wide range of strengths, impairments or sensitivities people with a learning disability and/or autistic people may have. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs.

Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. They knew people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing.

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care. Staff knew how to give people choices about their lives and respected the decisions they made.

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 good (published 28 September 2017).

Why we inspected

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

The service had not been subject to any formal regulatory review since the inspection in 2017. We undertook a focused inspection to seek assurance people continued to receive safe, high-quality care. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for South Supported Living Service on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.