Archived: North Tyneside Shared Lives

North Tyneside Shared Lives provides people with the opportunity to be part of the family of a Shared Lives carer. Carers are employed by the service to provide either a long or short term placements within their own homes. People that used the service had a range of health and social care needs, including a learning or physical disability.

The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The service needed to review their safe management of medicines procedures and we have made a recommendation to the provider.

Staff, Shared Lives carers and people using the service were aware of safeguarding procedures and had received information to support this. A board game had been produced to be used to help people understand safeguarding issues better and training had been provided to staff and Shared Lives carers.

Risk had been fully assessed across the service, including risks to people and those associated with the premises in which they were living. The provider monitored and regularly updated these to keep people safe.

People told us they felt safe and liked where they lived.

Robust recruitment procedures were in place for staff and Shared Lives carers; this ensured that people were supported by staff and carers who had been checked to ensure their suitability to work with vulnerable adults. There were enough staff to provide support to Shared Lives carers and people were only accepted into the service when a Shared Lives carer was matched with them and available for them to move in with.

Staff had received appropriate induction and training and received regular supervision and yearly appraisals. Shared Lives carers received an induction package which was being tailored around the Care Certificate. Training packages were in the process of currently being reviewed.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) is required by law to monitor the operations of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and to report on what we find. MCA is a law that protects and supports people who do not have the ability to make their own decisions and to ensure decisions are made in their ‘best interests’. We found the provider was complying with their legal requirements.

Staff told us that people’s nutritional needs were met. Records confirmed this and when we visited people in their Shared Lives carers home, they confirmed that they were able to have food they liked, could choose what they ate and were supported to remain healthy.

Staff at the service were extremely caring in their approach. The Shared Lives carers were also portrayed by both people and staff as caring individuals. Staff provided people with a range of information and activities to help them avoid social isolation and ensured that each individual received person centred care.

Shared lives carers recognised the need to support and encourage people to make decisions and choices whenever possible.

People and their Shared Lives carers and families were involved in their care planning and records were reviewed regularly.

People and Shared Lives carers knew how to make a complaint and easy read information was available to support people with additional needs. There had been no major complaints since the last inspection and minor complaints had been investigated and dealt with effectively.

There was a clear management structure in place and Shared Lives carers spoke highly of the Shared Lives team and the registered manager. Audits and checking processes were in place to ensure that the quality of the service was monitored and any issues were actioned.