Surrey Choices Shared Lives Scheme

Updated 9 August 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 2 inspectors.

Service and service type

Surrey Choices Shared Lives Scheme is a shared lives scheme, they recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers (SLC) who offer accommodation and support arrangements for vulnerable adults within their own family homes in the community.

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

We gave the service 48 hours’ 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 office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 13 July 2023 and ended on 24 July 2023. We visited the location’s office on 13 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 spoke with 3 people using the shared lives arrangements and 4 people’s relatives and representatives about their experience. We spoke with 6 members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager and scheme workers. We spoke with 9 carers supporting people in shared lives. We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people's care plans and medicines records for people supported with their medicines. We looked at recruitment checks and training records for 3 staff members. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and action plans were also reviewed.

Updated 9 August 2023

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.

About the service

Surrey Choices Shared Lives Scheme is a shared lives scheme which provides people with long-term placements, short breaks and respite care, within shared lives carers (SLC) own homes. At the time of the inspection there were 20 people using shared lives arrangement who received support with personal care. The scheme supported people with physical and health related support needs, some of who were people with learning disability and autism or dementia.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

This was a focused inspection that considered the safe and well-led key questions only. Based on our inspection of safe and well-led people using the shared lives arrangements received safe and person-centred support.

Right Support:

People were supported to choose their own shared lives arrangement which would suit their individual needs and preferences. People’s shared lives carers, as well as scheme staff supporting them were recruited safely and trained to provide effective support to people. Everyone knew how to raise concerns if required. The scheme worked with social services to protect people when needed.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff and carers supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right Care:

People received safe care around their individual needs and risks. People were treated as individuals and had person-centred support plans which were regularly reviewed with them and their carers. Staff and carers knew how to safely support people with their medicines, to keep well and free of infections and to maintain a safe living environment. Carers supported people to gain new skills and develop their strengths.

Right Culture:

The scheme’s culture was positive, supportive, open and person-centred. One staff member said, “We do the maximum to support people, people are focus on what we do.”

The scheme management team and the provider ensured quality and safety of the service was continuously monitored and improved. People and their representatives, shared lives carers and scheme staff felt appreciated, involved in the service, and listened to. The scheme worked well in partnership with others to provide people with the support of their choosing safely.

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 good (published 27 December 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing and the level of care people received. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating remained good to good based on the findings of this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from the concerns. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Surrey Choices Shared Lives Scheme on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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