Poole and Bournemouth Shared Lives

Updated 17 September 2021

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. Two assistant inspectors and an Expert by Experience made calls to people and their carers. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Poole and Bournemouth Shared Lives is a shared lives service. They recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers (SLC) who offer accommodation and support arrangements for people within their own family homes in the community.

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.

Inspection activity started on 6 May 2021 and ended on 7 May 2021. We visited the office location on 6 May 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since registration. 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with 13 shared lives carers and three people who used the service on the telephone about their experience providing care. We spoke with the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included six people's care records. We looked at four shared lives carer's recruitment and assessment files. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance records were reviewed.

After the inspection

After the inspection, we reviewed further evidence sent to us by the registered manager.

Updated 17 September 2021

About the service

Poole and Bournemouth Shared Lives recruits people to become paid carers to support people aged 16 and over with a range of support needs. People stay in the carer's home and receive their support within a family environment. Some shared lives carers had been approved to care for more than one person. Shared Lives support can vary from a day a week, a day a month, overnight stays or living with someone for a short while or permanently. Staff employed by the shared lives service provide support to people and their carers.

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 consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 60 people on a long term or short term basis.

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

There were systems and processes in place to identify and manage risks to people's care. Organisational governance processes monitored the quality of the service.

There were comprehensive recruitment processes in place to ensure people were matched with suitable shared lives carers to support people effectively in their own homes.

Shared lives carers completed a range of training to help them support people appropriately. Shared lives carers had received safeguarding training and were able to demonstrate their understanding and responsibilities to reduce the risk of harm to people.

People received their medicines from shared lives carers who had been trained to safely administer medicines.

Shared lives carers had received training on infection prevention and control. Information and guidance on infection control measures were available for shared lives carers and people.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with autism and or 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. The values and behaviours of the registered manager and staff led to shared lives carers feeling supported. Communication was “very good.”

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 06/06/2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection.

Follow up

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