AFG Community Liverpool City South

Updated 11 June 2024

Date of assessment 17 March to 9April 2025. AFG Community Liverpool City South is a supported living service providing personal care to people living in their own homes. The service supports people who have a learning disability and/or mental and physical health needs. The assessment was in response to information of concern received regarding the quality and safety of the service. At the time of our inspection the service supported 82 people. As part of the assessment, we visited people living in 7 different settings, reviewed their care records, spoke with staff, leaders and relatives and reviewed records in relation to people’s support.

We looked at a range of quality statements across the domains of safe, effective, and well-led. We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted’.

The overall rating of this assessment was requires improvement. We found two breaches of the legal regulations in relation to the need for consent and good governance. The provider had not followed the Mental Capacity Act 2005 when decisions were made about people’s care and support. There was a lack of a robust understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and the Community Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (c-DoLS). Governance systems in place failed to identify the concerns found during the assessment. The provider was open to feedback and had started to make the required improvements. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found.

Safer recruitment practices were in place and staff received an induction and shadowed experienced staff as part of their learning. Staff were kind and caring to people they supported and worked well together as a team and well trained. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications, and experience. People were kept safe from potential abuse. Potential risks to people were assessed and mitigated. The provider supported staff’s wellbeing. Staff felt able to give feedback and were treated equally.

Updated 11 June 2024

We spoke with people, relatives and professionals about the care provided. People were positive about the service they received. One person told us, “I love the place and love the staff, they are friendly, and I can talk to them.” Some relatives said their loved one’s needs, including their communication needs were understood well by staff. One relative stated, “They do a brilliant job. [Person] is really well looked after. The staff are good very helpful and friendly. They ring me and keep me updated.” Relatives confirmed there were enough staff to support people using the service. They felt staff were well trained and knowledgeable about how to care for people with complex health needs.

A relative shared how staff supported people with appointments and how they ensured families were kept up to date with any changes to people’s care needs or medications.

Everyone agreed staff supported people to have regular contact with their families. Relatives spoke positively about the management team who were approachable, available and responded promptly to any concerns. Relatives felt able to raise any issues with leaders and knew these would be taken seriously and responded to without delay. People’s relatives helped reflect people’s experience of care where people were unable to verbally communicate and we undertook observations of the support people received.