Updated 29 October 2025
Date of Assessment: 12 March to 9 April 2026. The service is a care at home service providing support to 19 adults who have physical disabilities and live in their own homes. Independent Living Alternatives also supported people who did not receive personal care and in ways outside of our legal remit such as supporting people in the workplace. We did not assess these aspects of their organisation.
The ethos of the service is to promote the rights of disabled people, by placing the person in control of the management of the care they received, as the provider’s policy was only those people who had mental capacity could use the service so they would manage their own care. This was a central part of their values, promoting the rights of disabled people to live normal lives. This control included training staff, choosing staff to be part of their care team, and alerting the management if there were any concerns or issues, rather than the emphasis being on care staff doing this. The policy of the organisation was to also only provide care to people who had live in care or block hours of arranged care, such as 4 hours at a time.
Despite these positives the registered manager and provider were not always fulfilling their regulatory responsibilities. They were not auditing the quality of the care provided and reviewing actions taken when a concern was raised. Staff were not being given with clear care plans and robust risk assessments to follow. The provider and registered manager had also not ensured staff were fully trained and competent in their work. Nor were they checking the work completed by staff fitted with their organisation’s policies, for example for staff to not administer people’s medicines. The provider and registered manager were not always being mindful of all their legal requirements when managing and delivering the regulated activity of personal care.
There were 2 breaches of the regulations and fundamental standards in relation to ineffective governance and not ensuring staff were competent and trained.
There were other aspects of the management and delivery of the care which fulfilled the regulatory requirements of the registered manager and provider. People received a person-centred care experience which they were in control of. There was a process in place to raise a concern and complaint. However, further work was needed to ensure the registered manager and provider was compliant and fully understood all their legal responsibilities when delivering the regulated activity of personal care.