Background to this inspection
Updated
1 December 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
The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 1 Expert by Experience. 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 is a domiciliary care agency and supported living service. It provides personal care to people living in their own tenancies.
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 not a registered manager in post. However, the manager of the service had, prior to our inspection, submitted their application to become registered with us.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small, and we needed to be sure that the manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 10 November 2023 and ended on 14 November 2023. We visited a supported living service (with consent) on 13 November 2023 and the location’s office on 14 November 2023.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority. 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 spent time with, and spoke with, 10 people using the service. We gained feedback from 5 relatives through telephone conversations. We spoke with 6 care staff, the service manager and the operations manager. We reviewed 4 people’s care plans, risk assessments and medication administration records. We reviewed 3 staff files to review the recruitment methods in place. We looked at a range of policies, audits and systems that monitored the safety and quality of the service.
Updated
1 December 2023
About the service
Voyage (DCA) Warwickshire is a domiciliary care agency which is registered to provide personal care and support to people in their own tenancies. The service has three shared home 24-hour supported living services. The service is registered to provide support to younger adults and older people with a learning disability, autistic spectrum disorder, sensory impairment or mental health support need.
At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 17 people who were receiving 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.
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
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. People's freedom was not unnecessarily restricted, and people were not physically restrained.
People's support was provided in supported living shared homes. Checks were undertaken by the management team to ensure homes were safe, clean, equipped and maintained. Any maintenance issues were passed to the landlord to address and followed up when needed.
Staff worked with people, their relatives and health and social care professionals to maintain people's overall health and wellbeing. Staff supported people to take their medicines safely and as prescribed.
Right Care
People were supported by staff who knew them well and were kind toward them. People's safety and care needs were identified, their care was planned, and their needs were met. Staff understood how to protect people from abuse and were confident the service manager would take action to protect people, should this be required. Robust recruitment checks made sure staff were of suitable character to support people.
Right Culture
Improvement had been made to create a positive and person-centred culture at the service. Meetings had been introduced for people to share feedback on what was and was not going well so actions could be taken to address any concerns. Staff were involved in sharing feedback about the service and felt the management team had improved significantly since the last inspection. Staff felt valued in their roles.
The positive culture meant people received care that was tailored to their needs. The service manager and operations manager undertook safety and quality checks on people's care and used their findings to improve the quality of the service and to take learning
from incidents.
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 2 November 2022) 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.
Why we inspected
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take following the last inspection.
The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.