Independent Options Central Support Service

Updated 26 July 2019

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 considered of one inspector and one 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 14 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.

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 manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 03 July 2019 and ended on 08 July 2019. We visited the office location on 03 July 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the service including notifications the provider had sent to us. We contacted the local authority safeguarding and local commissioning teams to obtain their views about the service. We contacted Healthwatch for any feedback they had received. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. All this information was used to identify key lines of enquiry as part of the inspection.

During the inspection-

During the inspection we looked at four people's care records which included a wide range of support plans and risk assessments. We reviewed a range of documents relating to how the service was managed including; four staff personnel files, staff training records, policies, procedures and quality assurance audits.

We met with seven people living in the three supported living tenancies we visited. We obtained feedback from two people who were receiving support from the service and spoke with five relatives on the telephone to gain an understanding of their views of the service and quality of support that people were receiving. We spoke with the chief executive officer (CEO), two service managers, the director of human resources, quality manager, three team leaders and five support workers.

Updated 26 July 2019

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 considered of one inspector and one 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 14 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.

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 manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 03 July 2019 and ended on 08 July 2019. We visited the office location on 03 July 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the service including notifications the provider had sent to us. We contacted the local authority safeguarding and local commissioning teams to obtain their views about the service. We contacted Healthwatch for any feedback they had received. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. All this information was used to identify key lines of enquiry as part of the inspection.

During the inspection-

During the inspection we looked at four people's care records which included a wide range of support plans and risk assessments. We reviewed a range of documents relating to how the service was managed including; four staff personnel files, staff training records, policies, procedures and quality assurance audits.

We met with seven people living in the three supported living tenancies we visited. We obtained feedback from two people who were receiving support from the service and spoke with five relatives on the telephone to gain an understanding of their views of the service and quality of support that people were receiving. We spoke with the chief executive officer (CEO), two service managers, the director of human resources, quality manager, three team leaders and five support workers.