Updated 1 January 2020
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 and Notice of inspection
The majority of Thera locations, including Thera South West are registered in Grantham, Lincolnshire, despite the organisation being responsible for other locations in different parts of the country. Due to this, a decision was made by CQC to co-ordinate inspection activity at a number of Thera locations. A head office visit was carried out on 16 September 2019 by a team of inspectors prior to locations being inspected. The information from this visit fed into each of the location inspections. Thera South West (referred to as the provider) was given one week’s notice and was inspected between 30 October 2019 and 20 November 2019 by four inspectors.
Service and service type
Thera South West provides care and support to people living in ‘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. The service covers the south western counties of Devon, Dorset and parts of Wiltshire.
The service had three managers registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
What we did before the inspection
Prior to the inspection, we used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). 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 also reviewed the information we held about the service and notifications we had received. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spent time talking with 14 people and observing the interactions between them and staff.
We spoke with 24 members of staff.
We reviewed 14 people’s care files, eight staff files, staff training records and a selection of policies, procedures and records relating to the management of the service.
After the inspection
After our visit we sought feedback from health and social care professionals to obtain their views of the service provided to people. We received feedback from one health professional