North Tyneside Shared Lives

North Tyneside Shared Lives is a ‘Shared Lives’ service providing personal care to people, some of whom have a learning disability and/or autism living in their own homes. The service was supporting 19 people with personal care at the time of our inspection. North Tyneside Shared Lives recruits, trains and supports Shared Lives carers. We refer to Shared Lives carers as 'carers' throughout this report. A carer is an individual who provides personal care together with accommodation in their own home. This enables people to live as independently as possible. The scheme supports adults who have a learning disability and/or autism. North Tyneside Shared Lives provides three main services: long term accommodation and support, short respite breaks and emergency accommodation, care and support which is provided at short notice and usually in the event of an illness or family crisis.

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.

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

Right Support

¿ People felt at home, relaxed and able to be themselves. People were supported with warmth, compassion and dedication. Staff encouraged people to pursue the interests and activities that were important to them, as well as celebrating their successes.

¿ Carers knew people extremely well, as did the registered manager and the service’s 2 community reablement workers.

¿ The planning and delivery of care was collaborative and inclusive; the provider worked closely with external agencies, health and social work professionals, relatives and people to ensure people’s needs were met.

¿ People experienced good health and wellbeing outcomes. Staff had a good understanding of the risks associated with people’s needs. They encouraged positive risk taking.

Right Care

¿ The provider ensured carers had sufficient time to get to know people. Their ‘matching’ process was exceptional. People and carers got to know each other and there were extremely smooth transitional processes in place.

¿ Staff understood how to encourage people to develop their own independence. They celebrated people’s achievements and people flourished and thrived in homely environments, where they were treated like members of families.

¿ Staff proactively advocated for people and where people needed help to make specific decisions, they sought the right help from external advocacy services.

¿ Enablement plans were person centred and detailed at the point people began using the service. They were reviewed regularly.

¿ Staff worked extremely well with external health and social care professionals, seeking out specialist help when needed. People received a high quality of care as a result.

Right culture

¿ The culture of the service was focussed on people being able to thrive in a homely environment where they were valued, respected and supported. There were close working relationships between the office team and the Shared Lives carers, which ensured people received a high standard of care, and continuity.

¿ People, their relatives, and their Shared Lives Carers, with whom they shared their lives, were involved in decisions about their care and how the service was run.

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

Rating at last inspection

The service was rated good in an inspection on 24 July 2018.

Why we inspected

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

North Tyneside Shared Lives provides three main services: long term accommodation, short breaks and emergency accommodation, care and support which is provided at short notice and usually in the event of an illness or family crisis.

Shared Lives North Tyneside has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

The service moved address following our last inspection in December 2015 when we rated it good overall. This inspection is our first inspection of the location at the new registered address.

This inspection took place on 14 June 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed someone to be at the office. We completed two further announced days of inspection on 19 and 21 June 2018 which included visits to peoples’ homes.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The culture was extremely person centred. Staff focused on ensuring people were supported to be the key decision maker in their lives. Their views were encouraged and respected and they were supported to be in control of their lives. People were treated as one of the family by their carers and were encouraged to have open and honest relationships with the staff, their carers and their families.

Staff worked with people and shared lives carers to get to know their personalities, histories, needs and preferences. This information was used to match people and carers which meant there was a high degree of success in placements.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Where appropriate, and relevant, capacity assessments had been completed and best interest decisions documented.

Medicines were managed safely and people were supported with any health and dietary needs.

The registered manager demonstrated a clear passion for ensuring people received support that was person-centred. This vision was shared by the staff and carers alike. People knew they had a voice in their life and we observed people to be confident in sharing their thoughts and feelings.

Technology was used to support people to develop their independence and take positive risks, such as spending time at home on their own. Risk assessments were in place which people, and their carers, had been involved in.

Enablement plans were developed with the person and their carers. People made changes to the plans as they wished to and these were then discussed during monitoring visits with the paid staff. Monitoring visits were used to support the person and their carer and to assess the quality of the service provided.

Feedback was sought regularly as a way to improve the service, and for short breaks people completed surveys about their stay after each visit.

Safeguarding procedures were in place, and staff and carers knew how to protect people from harm. Easy read leaflets had been developed to support people’s understanding of internet safety, hate and mate crime. Hate crime is when someone does something to hurt someone because of their race, sexuality or disability. Mate crime is when someone pretends to be a person’s friend then commits a crime against them or takes advantage of them.

Complaints, accidents and incidents were investigation in a timely manner. Outcomes were shared and changes to the service were made in response to concerns. For example, the introduction of a health questionnaire for people having short breaks.

Staff and carers attended relevant training and told us they were very well supported. There were regular team meetings for the staff and support groups were arranged for the carers and the people supported.

Innovative ways of promoting the service to recruit additional carers had been developed. This included a YouTube video which included a shared lives carer and the people who lived with them. Consent had been sought and everyone involved shared their experiences of North Tyneside Shared Lives.