Background to this inspection
Updated
25 February 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
An inspector and 2 Experts by Experience carried out this inspection. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type
This service provides care and support to people living in 11 ‘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
This inspection was announced. We gave the service short notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small and people are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.
Inspection activity started on 21 November 2022 and ended on 12 January 2023. We visited the location’s services on 9 and 12 January 2023.
What we did before the inspection
The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and sought feedback from the local authority. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We visited 3 supported living services and spoke with 5 people. We spoke with the registered manager, team leaders and staff during the visits to supported living services. We also received email feedback from 9 relatives and 10 staff. We observed the relationships between people and staff. We reviewed a range of records relating to the safety, effectiveness and management of the service. This included care records and staff support and training record.
After the inspection
We reviewed additional information the registered manager sent us.
Updated
25 February 2023
About the service
Lifeways Community Care (Sunderland) provides personal care to people living in their homes in Newcastle and South Tyneside. At the time of our inspection there were 22 people living with a learning disability and/or a mental health related condition receiving a regulated activity from the service.
Not everyone using Lifeways Sunderland receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care' which includes help with washing, dressing and eating.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
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.
Right Support:
Staff no longer used some people's homes as an office base; staff related records were now accessed electronically on a laptop.
Staff supported people to access the community. People told us about recent outings they had and others that were planned.
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:
People made daily living choices and supported people to achieve these. There were good relationships between people and staff and staff treated people with dignity and respect.
Staff had reviewed people’s goals and plans were developed to achieve these.
Right Culture:
The registered manager had improved the effectiveness of the quality assurance processes so that areas for improvements were identified and acted on.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 30 September 2021) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
At our last inspection we recommended that staffing levels were reviewed and that people were supported to review their goals. At this inspection we found the provider had acted on these and had improved.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced inspection of this service between 26 July 2021 and 12 August 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve the need for consent; safe care and treatment; good governance and staffing.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements.
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 requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Lifeways Community Care (Sunderland) 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.