Background to this inspection
Updated
22 May 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
This was a planned inspection in line with the scheduled re-inspection dates for services rated as good.
Inspection team: The inspection team consisted of one inspector.
Service and service type:
The service provides care and support to people living in a number of ‘supported living’ settings, so 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.
At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 26 people in multiple locations across Worcestershire, each house being home to between three and four people, delivering around 2000 care hours per week.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is spread over a number of locations and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
Inspection site visit activity started on 12 March 2019 and ended on 14 March 2019. We visited the office location on 12 March 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. Furthermore, we made telephone calls to relatives and health professionals during the week commencing 18 March 2019.
What we did:
Prior to the inspection the provider completed a PIR (Provider Information Return). The PIR is a form that asks the registered provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed safeguarding alerts and notifications that had been sent to us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.
We spoke with the registered manager, two front line managers; a senior support worker and two support staff. We met with a group of five people who attended the service office on the first day of the inspection. We visited three houses and spoke with or observed four people in their own homes. We spoke on the phone to two relatives and one health professional. We looked at a range of records including; three care records of people who used the service, medicine records, staff recruitment and training records and a range of other policies and quality monitoring documents. Following the inspection the registered manager provided further documentation for us to consider.
Updated
22 May 2019
About the service: MacIntyre Worcestershire Supported Living is a supported living provider supporting people with a learning disability or autistic condition in their own homes. At the time of the inspection they were supporting 22 people in multiple locations around Worcestershire.
People’s experience of using this service:
People using the service benefitted from outstanding care, delivered in a manner which was personal to them and based on their assessed needs. People we spoke with praised both the care workers and the management of the service for the delivery of high quality of care. We spoke with nine people and two relatives, the majority of whom told us they were exceptionally happy with the support they received, described the service as superb and said they would highly recommend the provider to other people. One person told us, “The best thing about living here is everything.”
People told us they felt safe when being supported with care and said all the support staff worked in a way that respected their privacy and dignity. They told us they looked on staff as friends and we observed them to be very happy and relaxed in staff company. The service had a culture of supporting people to live their own lives to the best of their ability. This ethos was infused throughout the service. Staff told us they felt valued by the organisation and said MacIntyre Worcestershire Supported Living was the best company they had worked for. One care worker told us, “This company has been the best company to work for. They empower the guys and put in place strategies to achieve this.”
Staff and managers described how workers often went beyond their scheduled duties, supporting people outside their normal working hours, enabling them to attend events and taking them on holiday. People told us the service would take on the responsibility of arranging and liaising with outside services. People were involved in decisions about their own care but also in helping to run and direct the service. The provider had a strong user voice group who had made a demonstrable improvement to the running of the service and the quality of support.
Staff told us they were very happy working for the service. They confirmed they could access a range of training and development opportunities and were well supported by senior staff in the organisation. They felt there was an extremely positive culture in the organisation and felt valued. The registered manager was proactive about visiting and checking all the locations in the service. A range of substantive quality audits were undertaken.
More information about the service is contained in the full report.
Rating at last inspection: Good (The date the last report was published was 16 February 2016)
Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on previous rating. The service had moved from good to outstanding.
Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with schedule for those services rated as outstanding.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk