Aspire Specialised Supported Living Service

Updated 27 February 2024

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 2 inspectors and 1 regulatory co-ordinator.

Service and service type

Aspire Specialised Supported Living Service is a supported living service. This service provides care and support to people living in '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 notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service.

During the inspection

We spoke with 7 staff including the senior area manager, service manager and care staff. We spoke with 4 people and 3 relatives about their views of the care provided. We reviewed the care records for 3 people, medicine records, staff recruitment, records related to governance systems and processes and other documentation relevant to the running of the service.

Updated 27 February 2024

About the service

Aspire Specialised Supported Living Service is a supported living service providing personal care to up to 15 people with learning disabilities and autism. At the time of the inspection there was 14 people using the service.

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 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. Medicines were managed safely. Risk assessments included detailed information about people's needs and staff were knowledgeable about how to support people safely.

Right Care: Staffing levels were sufficient to meet people's needs. However, the provider acknowledged difficulties in recruiting staff and had therefore used regular agency staff to ensure people’s needs could be met. Systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and people told us they felt safe with the staff who supported them. However, we did identify some safeguarding incidents which had not been reported to CQC. Incidents and accidents were reported, investigated and measures taken to mitigate future occurrences.

Right Culture: The provider had quality assurance and governance systems in place to assess, monitor, and improve the quality and safety of the service. We received mixed views from relatives and staff on support they received from the registered manager. Some people expressed they did not feel assured by the registered managers response in managing concerns whereas others felt very supported.

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 requires improvement (published 30 June 2022).

Why we inspected

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

This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well Led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

Follow up

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