Archived: Sustain (UK) Ltd

Updated 12 February 2020

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in seven ‘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.

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. 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.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three members of staff and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and 12 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed.

After the inspection –

We spoke with one person who received support from the provider on the telephone on 06 December 2019 and a further one person and a relative on 11 December 2019.

Updated 12 February 2020

About the service

Sustain (UK) Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people in their own homes, either in the community or in supported living accommodation. At the time of the inspection, there were seven people receiving support across seven different properties.

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

There were systems in place to monitor quality and people were supported by staff who had been recruited safely, however the procedures followed when making recruitment decisions were not always recorded. People were given opportunity to feedback on the quality of the service. People and staff spoke positively about the management team.

People felt safe with staff and told us they received support from a consistent staff team. Medicines were managed safely by staff who had received training in how to administer medicines. There were safe infection control practices in place.

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 24 September 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the recruitment practices of the provider. This included the validity of Disclosure and Barring Checks being completed for staff. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the Key Questions of Safe and Well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other Key Questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those Key Questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the Safe and Well-Led sections of this full report.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.