Shared Lives Northumberland

Updated 5 January 2024

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 2 inspectors.

Service and service type

Shared Lives Northumberland 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 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

This inspection was announced as we needed to arrange to visit people in shared lives carers' homes and ensure staff were in the office.

Inspection activity started on 23 October 2023 and ended on 8 November 2023. We visited the office on 23 October and visited people using the service throughout the inspection dates.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection, such as notifications from the provider and information from the local authority. 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. This information helps support our inspections. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited 7 shared lives carers in their homes and spoke with another 5 over the telephone. We spoke with 6 people of their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with 1 person’s relative.

We spoke with 4 out of 5 members of staff including the registered manager and three shared lives coordinators. We contacted 10 healthcare professionals, including shared lives panel members, social workers, care managers, training officers and local GP’s. We used their feedback to support the inspection outcome.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people's care and support records and medication records. We used the Quality of Life Tool which is designed to support the corroboration of all sources of evidence gathered during inspection. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 5 January 2024

About the service

Shared Lives Northumberland is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long term placements and respite care within shared lives carer’s own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 70 people using the service but only 54 received regulated activities. Some shared lives carers were approved for more than one person to live in their home.

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: People received remarkably personalised care and support from highly dedicated staff teams and shared lives carers. People succeeded in all aspects of their daily lives. This included massively increased confidence, being supported with new skills and increased opportunities which may not have readily been available to them in other circumstances.

People reached milestones in their lives and were supported with goals and aspirations they may have had. People were supported to have maximum autonomy, 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 exceptionally personalised care and support which upheld their dignity, privacy, and human rights as individuals. People received care and support from extremely kind and compassionate staff and shared lives carers. Shared lives carers were remarkably attentive and responded immediately to changing needs, which meant people always continued to receive full and responsive care and support to enhance their lives.

Right Culture: People were truly at the heart of the service and a good culture had been developed over many years. The values and approaches of shared lives carers and staff were exemplary. People were accepted as part of shared lives carers families, and empowered to lead settled, fully included, and confident lives. The staff team promoted transparency and a culture of good teamwork.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 12 July 2018).

Why we inspected

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

Please see the safe, caring, and well-led sections of this full report. The caring key question is now rated outstanding. 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 Shared Lives Northumberland 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.