HF Trust - London DCA

Updated 10 May 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience who contacted relatives by telephone for feedback on the care people received. 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

This service provides care and support to people living in 7 ‘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.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service a short period notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection, and that there would be people at home to speak with us.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 6 August 2021. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited 2 of the supported living units and spoke with 3 people who used the service. We spoke with a total of 8 members of staff including 4 care workers, 3 unit managers and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 6 people's care records and multiple medicines records. We looked at 5 staff files in relation to recruitment and supervision. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, accidents and incidents records, staff training records, audits and meeting minutes.

Following our visit to the service, we spoke with the relatives of 7 people on the telephone.

Updated 10 May 2023

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

HF Trust – London DCA provides personal care and support to people living in their own home as part of a supported living scheme. The service comprises several purpose-built flats (supported living units) where people either have their own self-occupied flats or bedrooms with access to shared kitchen, bathroom and communal living areas.

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. Out of 29 people, 22 people who received personal care were using the service at the time of the inspection.

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

Right Support:

Systems were in place to monitor and ensure people received their medicines safely. However, we identified some shortfalls which the provider was addressing.

Risks in relation to people's care and welfare were thoroughly assessed. This meant staff had the right guidance to support people safely.

The service worked with people to plan for when they experienced periods of distress so that their freedoms were restricted only if there was no alternative. 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 supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making.

Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Right Care:

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and knew how to apply it.

Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people's cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care.

People's care and support plans reflected their range of needs and this promoted their wellbeing and independence.

Right Culture:

The service evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals as appropriate. Quality assurance systems helped the staff team to monitor the service they provided and promote ongoing learning.

Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive to their individual needs. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs.

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 7 December 2018).

Why we inspected

This focused inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

Recommendations

We made a recommendation around the safe management of medicines.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.