Sunderland Supported Living Service

Updated 6 August 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 team consisted of three inspectors and two Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The Experts by Experience contacted people’s relatives by telephone.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in 66 supported living settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. 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.

The service had four managers 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

This inspection was unannounced. Following our unannounced visit to the office we arranged with the provider visits to people’s homes. This was because some of the people using the service could not consent to a home visit from an inspector. This meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited the office location on 29 June and 16 July 2021. Between 30 June and 15 July 2021 we visited nine supported living services. We spoke with 16 people who used the service and 26 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We carried out observations of people who were unable to speak for themselves.

We spoke with 44 members of staff including the directors, the registered managers, a business manager, service managers, team leaders, senior care workers and care workers. We invited staff to contact us using our Share Your Experience portal on our website. Eight staff contacted us this way to provide feedback.

We spoke with six professionals who were in regular contact with the service.

We reviewed a range of records. This included eight people’s care records and medication records. We looked at eight staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 6 August 2021

About the service

Sunderland Supported Living Service provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 177 people using the service in 66 supported living services.

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

Staff and managers provided excellent care to people who they placed at the heart of the service. Staff spent time learning about people and provided them with a range of opportunities so they could gain in confidence and take pride in their new skills. People expressed joy living where they lived and being supported to pursue the lives they wanted to live. Relatives spoke extremely highly about staff and provided many examples of how people had settled well into their new homes with the support of the very caring staff.

People were protected from abuse by staff who had been trained in safeguarding and were confident to speak up about their concerns. Staff underwent a robust recruitment process to ensure they were suitable to work with people. People’s medicines were administered in a safe manner. Any personal risks to people were well managed.

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.

Staff understood people’s nutritional needs and sought advice from professionals when people’s health care needs changed.

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.

Right support:

• Systems were in place which ensured people had a voice in describing the type of support they wanted.

Right care:

• The care provided was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. Staff listened to people and treated each person as an individual.

Right culture:

• The managers and staff consistently spoke about the values and attitudes they held about the services. People and their relatives provided a significant number of examples which showed people were empowered to achieve increasingly independent lives.

Care plans were person centred and provided staff with detailed information on how to support people in line with their preferences. Staff were responsive to changes in people's needs and provided good support to people who were nearing the end of their life. Staff used various communication methods to involve people in making choices.

There were systems in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality of care being provided. Managers and staff had a commitment to continuous improvement. The registered managers worked closely with other services in quality improvement forums. There was clear evidence of staff working in partnership with other agencies. Professionals confirmed they had positive relationships with the registered managers and the staff teams.

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 19 March 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The service had not been inspected since it was first registered and was prompted in part by the number of medicine errors. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. The provider had taken action to mitigate the risk.

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.