About the service: Lifeways Community Care (Dudley) provides personal care to people in their own homes within a supported living setting. 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. At the time of the inspection there were 67 people receiving personal care, some of whom may have a learning disability, autism, mental health or physical disability.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

People’s experience of using this service:

Improvements had been made following our previous inspection to address the areas we identified as requiring improvement.

People felt safe and were supported by staff who understood how to report concerns and manage risks to keep people safe. The registered manager acted and reported safeguarding concerns when these were identified. Staff were recruited safely and people were supported by a regular team of staff. Medicines were given in a safe way and lessons were learnt when things went wrong.

Staff received training that was appropriate to them in their role and supported them in providing care in the way people wanted. Staff spoke positively about the support they received. Staff worked with external healthcare professionals and followed their guidance and advice about how to support people.

People told us staff were kind and caring and treated them with dignity and respect. People had regular care staff who knew how they liked to be supported.

The provider had a system in place for responding to complaints. People knew who to contact if they had any concerns.

The provider had quality assurance systems in place, however they were not fully effective as they had failed to identify other areas requiring improvements.

Rating at last inspection: Requires Improvement (report published December 2017).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up: The next scheduled inspection will be in keeping with the overall rating. We will continue to monitor information we receive from and about the service. We may inspect sooner if we receive concerning information about the service.

Enforcement:

No enforcement action was required.

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

The inspection took place on 11 and 12 May 2017 and was unannounced. This was the first rated inspection of this service since it re- registered with us in August 2016 after changing their address and the location name. There had been no change of provider.

Lifeways Community Care Limited (Dudley) is registered to provide personal care services to people in their own homes or supported living. People the service supports have a range of needs including physical disability and learning disability. On the day of the inspection, 35 people were receiving support.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act (2008) and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People felt safe and care staff knew how to keep them safe having had safeguarding training. There was, however, not always enough care staff for the supported living service in which the provider had recently started to provide care. People were able to get the support they needed with their medicines.

While the provider adhered to the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) to ensure people’s human rights were not unlawfully restricted, care staff were not always aware of the best interest decision. Care staff did not always have the skills and knowledge required to support people as they needed. People were able to access health care when needed.

People were able to access an advocate when needed. People were supported in a kind and compassionate manner. People’s privacy dignity and independence was respected and people were able to make decisions as to how they were supported.

Whilst the provider ensured people were able to share their views as part of an assessment and care planning process, people’s equality and diversity was not considered as part of the process. The provider’s complaints process enabled people to raise concerns they had.

We found whilst ‘spot checks’ and audits were taking place, they were not sufficiently effective in identifying areas of concerns within the service that needed to be improved. Comprehensive and accurate care records were not consistently available in the provider’s office to illustrate how people were being supported, how risks were being managed and the content of care reviews. People’s views were gathered to evaluate the quality of the service they received.