• Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Archived: Sandwell Supported Living

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Suite 512, Hawthorns House, Hawthorns Business Centre, Halfords Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 1BB (0121) 558 0933

Provided and run by:
Royal Mencap Society

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 20 June 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.

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted of an inspector, an assistant inspector and an expert by experience (ExE). An ExE is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type:

The service had a manager in post who was registered with the Care Quality Commission. The registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of the inspection the registered manager was working on secondment in another service operated by the provider. A temporary manager was in post and the provider had sent in the required legal notification to inform CQC of the management arrangements in place.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Inspection activity started on 21 May 2019 and ended on 22 May 2019. We visited the office location on 22 May 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

As part of the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. We looked to see if statutory notifications had been sent by the provider. A statutory notification contains information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. We reviewed information that had been sent to us by the public. We used this information to help us plan our inspection.

During the inspection we spoke with two people who used the service and five relatives. As many of the people using the service were not able to share their views by telephone, we met with two people face to face to ask about their experiences of using the service. We spoke with the area operations manager, the manager and five staff members. We reviewed records relating to people’s medicines, three people’s care records and records relating to the management of the service; including staff recruitment records, complaints and quality assurance records.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 20 June 2019

About the service: Sandwell Supported Living is provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were six people receiving support with personal care from the service, all of whom had learning disabilities.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were protected from the risk of potential abuse. People were protected from the risk of harm including accidents and injury.

People were supported by sufficient numbers of staff who had been recruited safely and were appropriately trained.

People received their medicines as prescribed. They were supported to eat and drink sufficient quantitites safely and their health needs were monitored. People were supported to access healthcare professionals when required.

People were supported to be fully involved in making choices about their care and providing consent. People were supported by staff who were kind and caring towards them. Their privacy and dignity were respected and their independence promoted.

People’s needs were appropriately assessed and they received support that was truly personalised to their individual needs. People were supported to access a wide range of activities and leisure opportunities.

People’s views were sought and they were able to make complaints if needed.

People were supported in a well-managed service with effective quality assurance and governance systems in place. The provider and manager were committed to making improvements to the service in order to provide high standards of care and to enhance people’s quality of life.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated ‘good’ (published 07 October 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk