We carried out a review of the data available to us about My Life Choice on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about My Life Choice, you can give feedback on this service.
My Life Choice is a domiciliary care service, providing personal care and support to people with learning disabilities and/or autism in their own homes, 24 hours a day. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting a total of three people, all of whom received support with personal care.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were supported by staff who knew how to recognise abuse and raise concerns. Staff had been safely recruited. Staff had a good knowledge of risks associated with providing peoples care. Staff had received adequate training to meet peoples individual care needs.
Medicines were managed safely, and people received them as prescribed. Policies and procedures were in place for the safe administration of medicines and competency checks were completed for staff.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Peoples communication needs had been assessed and recorded in their care plans. These detailed the persons preferred method of communication and aids or equipment.
People and their relatives were involved in their care and support planning. This enabled staff to provide the care and support people had agreed was appropriate to them. Staff promoted people’s independence and spent time getting to know their specific needs and wishes. People’s privacy and dignity was respected.
The service worked with external health and social care professionals and specialist learning disability teams to provide effective joined up care. Quality assurance processes were robust and provided oversight of the service. The registered manager had ideas of how to continuously improve people's lives and valued working in partnership with others to achieve this.
Systems were in place to ensure lessons were learned and improvements made when things went wrong. Safeguarding incidents, and complaints were investigated, and outcomes had been provided. People and their relatives told us, “The registered manager will manage complaints and respond accordingly.”
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. People were supported to reach their personal goals through person-centred approaches from leadership and staff with the right skills and attitudes to achieve this.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 24 July 2019).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for My Life Choice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.
My Life Choice is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people with highly complex needs living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive 'personal care'. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, one person was receiving personal care, and this had been in place only since January 2019.
People's experience of using this service
People were kept safe. Staff knew their responsibilities in relation to the subject of abuse and how to report any concerns. The provider's policies and procedures about abuse supported them in their roles. Risks to people's health and welfare had been assessed and regular reviews were undertaken to keep people safe.
The provider had strong recruitment systems and processes in place which were followed when recruiting new staff members to ensure they were suitable to work with people using the service.
Staff had received training and support which gave them the appropriate knowledge and skills to meet people’s needs. Staff had received training in line with best practice to support people to take their medicines as prescribed and to reduce risks to their safety. Staff were also supported through regular individual meetings and collective staff meetings, so they could share any issues they had and or best practice recommendations.
Relatives placed emphasis on the positive care and support provided by regular staff members who had built warm and trusting relationships with people using the service. The provider made sure staffing arrangements were in place, so people received the care they required and at the times they needed it.
People were supported as much as possible to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way; the systems, policies and procedures supported this practice. Where appropriate, people's consent was recorded.
People's dietary needs were met where required and in line with their care plans. Staff understood the importance of assisting people to eat and drink enough to meet their needs.
Staff worked jointly with social care and health professionals, so people had the best outcomes to meet their individual needs.
Staff were caring and thoughtful. Staff had access to equality and diversity policies and procedures and followed these. Care records confirmed people's choices, preferences and likes and dislikes had been considered and they had been involved as much as possible in the development of care plans. People were provided with care and support which was individual to them and which was responsive to any changes in their needs.
Information was available to people, so they knew how to make a complaint and felt confident these would be listened to with action taken to resolve any issues they had. There was a culture of openness and honesty between the registered manager, staff team and people using the service.
There was a strong emphasis on continuous improvement and seeking the views of people who used the service and healthcare professionals to measure the outcomes for people and identify where any changes in practice or improvements were needed.
Rating at last inspection: This service was registered on 27/06/2018. This is the first inspection of the service since registration.
Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection.
Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk