Archived: Harmony Supported Living Limited

Updated 10 August 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This comprehensive inspection took place on 12 July 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a supported living service and we needed to be sure that someone would be able to support us with our inspection. The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Prior to our inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service. We contacted the local authority commissioning and monitoring team, Healthwatch Barnsley, the infection control team, the fire service and reviewed all the safeguarding information regarding the service.

We did not ask the provider to complete a Provider Information Return. This form provides key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During our inspection we spent time looking at two people’s care and support records. We also looked at two records relating to recruitment, staff training and supervision records, incident records and various documents relating to the service’s quality assurance systems.

We spoke with the nominated individual, operations manager and two support workers. We spoke with three people in their own homes and one relative.

Updated 10 August 2018

The inspection of Harmony Supported Living Limited took place on 12 July 2018.

Harmony Supported Living Limited provides support to adults with learning disabilities and enduring mental health needs, living in their own homes. 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 our inspection 11 people were receiving support from the registered provider, three of which were receiving personal care.

We previously inspected the service on 8 August 2017. The service was rated as ‘requires improvement’ in three of the five key questions and overall, and as ‘good’ in the key questions of caring and responsive. There were no breaches of regulation identified on the previous inspection. On this visit, we checked to see if improvements had been made.

At the time of our inspection the service did not have a registered manager. The last registered manager had left in March 2018. 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 was currently being managed by the nominated individual who had also applied to become the registered manager.

Although people told us they felt safe, we found aspects of the service that were not safe.

Staff recruitment was not robust, a declaration on a job application form had not been followed up at interview and two staff recruitment files did not contain a reference from the previous/last employer and one recruitment file only had one reference.

People were not protected against the risks associated with the administration of medicines as this was not always carried out in a safe way. ‘As required’ PRN medicine protocols were not in place. Some staff had not received annual medicine competency assessments.

Accidents and incidents were recorded correctly and the operations manager had oversight of them.

Sufficient staff were deployed to meet people’s needs. Staff received induction training. Staff new to caring were required to complete the Care Certificate.

Staff had not received regular support, training, supervision or appraisal assessments of their performance.

Records showed people had seen a range of healthcare professionals, such as GPs, community mental health teams and podiatrists, to meet their wider health needs.

The service was compliant with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People were supported to remain independent and maintain relationships with people that matter. People told us they had access to a range of activities.

People’s support plans were not regularly updated. However, changes to support requirements were discussed at staff meetings.

People and their relatives felt confident how to complain if they needed to. No complaints had been made by people or relatives since the last inspection in August 2017.

Regular audits were not in place to monitor the safety and quality or the service.

People and their relatives had not had opportunities to provide feedback about the service.

Staff attended regular team meetings.

This is the second time the service has been rated requires improvement. We have also identified breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.