Background to this inspection
Updated
17 May 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection team consisted of one inspector.
Service and service type:
Mencap North Notts is a supported living service who provide care and support in people’s own homes. The service had a manager 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.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit to ensure that there was a manager available at the office. Inspection site visit activity took place on 3 April 2019. We visited the office location to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
Before the inspection took place, we reviewed the information we had about the service. This included statutory notifications sent to us by the registered manager about incidents and events that had occurred at the service. A notification is information the service is required to send us by law. We also contacted the local authority, safeguarding team and Healthwatch to gain their views. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
We reviewed a range of records, this included staff files and care records, incident reports and audits. We spoke with five staff members, three service managers and the registered manager. After the inspection visit we spoke with three relatives.
Updated
17 May 2019
About the service: Mencap North Notts is a service which provides care and support to people living in 12 ‘supported living’ settings, so that they live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate the premises used for supported living: this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support. There were 36 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service:
The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principals of Registering the Right Support in the following ways; promotion of choice, control and independence and inclusion. For example, people’s support focussed on them having as many opportunities to gain new skills and live as full a life as possible. Staff and managers concentrated on finding solutions to barriers which may have prevented people from doing activities they enjoyed.
People received caring and compassionate support from staff who had the appropriate skills and knowledge to carry out their role. We found that staff were passionate about the work they did and people using the service were at the forefront of everything they planned. This included staff thinking of innovative ways that people could achieve outcomes despite challenges. For example, barriers to social inclusion when a person using the service becomes anxious and upset with some groups of people outside of the service.
People’s rights to make their own decisions was respected. People were supported to access healthcare services where needed. People had enough to eat and drink and staff encouraged healthy eating.
People received personalised support based on their assessed needs and preferences. Staff knew how to support people in a way that they preferred. People knew how to complain.
The service was managed by a registered manager who had a very clear vision about the quality of care they wanted to provide. There were six service managers who shared that vision and who supported staff in a meaningful way ensuring that staff always had regular supervision and less formal chats when faced with challenges. Each service manager managed two services. Staff told us that they felt well supported to do their role and were encouraged to be innovative.
Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated Good (report published July 2016)
Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.
Follow up: We will monitor all intelligence received about the service to inform the assessment of the risk profile of the service and to ensure that the next planned inspection is scheduled accordingly.