6 December 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
About the service
Merton Shared Lives Scheme provides a housing with support service and is registered to provide an accommodation based service for people that need some support in their everyday lives. The scheme is for adults aged 18 and over, with a learning disability, mental health issue, older people, and those with a sensory impairment. 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 the inspection there were 16 people receiving personal care in different supported living settings.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
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.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.
Right Support
The service was safe for people to use and staff to work in. Staff supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control, independence, and were focussed on people’s strengths and promoted what they were able to do. This meant people were able to pursue their interests, with staff support. The quality of the service provided, was reviewed regularly, and changes were made to improve people’s care and support. This was in a way that suited people best. The service established working partnerships that promoted people’s participation and reduced their social isolation. People were enabled by staff, to access specialist healthcare services and followed best practice when supporting them with communication and making decisions.
Right Care
Staff who supported people, promoted their equality, diversity, and understood people's cultural needs and provided appropriate care. Relatives told us staff were kind, compassionate, caring, and promoted people's privacy and dignity. There were enough well trained and appropriately recruited staff to support people to live safely, whilst still enjoying their lives. Any risks to people using the service and staff were assessed, monitored, and reviewed. Complaints, concerns, accidents and incidents and safeguarding issues were appropriately reported, investigated, and recorded. Trained staff safely administered people’s medicines.
Right culture
The service leadership and management were identifiable, transparent, and there was an open, positive, and honest culture. The provider had a clearly defined vision and values, that staff understood and followed. Staff understood people, were responsive, and supported them in their aspirations to live a quality life of their choice. This was by placing people’s wishes, needs, and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff were aware of their responsibilities, accountability and prepared to take responsibility and report any concerns they might have.
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was Good (published 22 September 2017).
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection to check whether the service was continuing to provide a good rated service for people.
The overall rating for the service remains Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We did not inspect the key questions of effective, caring, and responsive.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Merton Shared Lives Scheme 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.