Magic House

Updated 21 June 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

This inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors and 2 Experts by Experience who contacted relatives by telephone for feedback on the care people received. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The inspection was also partly supported by a medicines inspector who reviewed information relating to people’s medicines remotely.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in a number of ‘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 provider a short notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 25/04/2023 and ended on 27/04/2023. We visited the location’s office on 25/04/2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used information gathered as part of a monitoring activity that took place on 03/03/2023 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. 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 visited 3 of the largest supported living settings. We observed interactions between people and staff. We spoke with 1 person using the service who was the only person available and willing to communicate with us.

We spoke with 12 staff on duty, including care workers, senior care workers, supported living setting managers, senior managers, the registered manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included care records for 9 people and multiple medicines records.

We looked at 6 staff files in relation to recruitment. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, staff training records, audits and meeting minutes.

Following our visits to the service, we spoke with the relatives of 16 people using the service and an additional 6 care workers.

Updated 21 June 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

Magic House (commonly known as Magic Life) is a supported living service providing personal care to people with varied physical and mental health needs, including people with a learning disability and autistic people. At the time of the inspection, the service comprised 16 supported living settings in the form of houses and purpose-built flats, most of which were located in North London.

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, the registered manager reported 86 people were using the service, out of whom 46 people received personal care.

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

Right Support:

People were supported by trained staff to take their medicines. However, we found inconsistencies in how medicines were managed, mainly around guidance on some medicines and audits.

Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life.

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.

Right Care:

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so but the management team did not always notify CQC of safeguarding incidents as required. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

People’s care and support plans reflected their range of needs and this promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life. The service assessed people’s risks and enabled them to take positive risks where appropriate.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff understood and responded to people’s individual needs.

Right Culture:

Managers evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals as appropriate. However, existing quality assurance systems were less effective in some areas, including medicines management, statutory notifications and staff training.

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.

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care.

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 12 March 2020).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about medicines management, assessing risks to people and staff competencies. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only to examine those risks. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

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 changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

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

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified a breach in relation to good governance.

We have also made a recommendation around the safe management of people’s medicines.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.