Last updated 22 September 2016
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This was an announced inspection which took place on 10 and 11 August 2016. In line with our current methodology we contacted the service two days before our inspection and told them of our plans to carry out a comprehensive inspection. This was because the location provides a domiciliary care and supported living service for adults with learning disabilities who were often out during the day; we needed to be sure that someone would be in and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be at the office. The inspection team consisted of one adult social care inspector.

Before the inspection we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and what improvements they plan to make. Prior to the inspection we reviewed the PIR and looked at information we held about the service and provider, including notifications the provider had sent us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also asked the local authority and Bury Health watch for their views on the service.

With their permission we spoke with four people who use the service in their own houses and one person at the main office. During our inspection we spoke with the registered manager, the head of the Manchester service, a house manager, social worker directly employed by the provider and five support staff. The day after our inspection we spoke with three relatives by telephone to ask their opinion of the service

We looked at four care records and three people’s medication records. We also looked at a range of records relating to how the service was managed including three staff personnel files, staff training records, duty rotas, policies and procedures and quality assurance audits.