About the service: Ategi Shared Lives Scheme Thurrock is a Shared Lives service that recruits, trains and supports self-employed Shared Lives Carers (SLCs) who offer accommodation and support arrangements for vulnerable adults within their own family homes in the community. The service is registered to support people with a variety of needs including people with learning disabilities and or autism.

Not everyone using this shared lives service receives a regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'. This includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At this inspection there were four people using the service who received personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ People spoke positively about their experience of the service. They said they were very happy with their SLCs, supported to be active in the community and could share any concerns with them.

¿ SLCs knew the people they supported well, they spoke of them fondly and we observed good relationships between them.

¿The service applied the values and principles of CQC guidance Registering the Right Support (RRS), because people were enabled to make choices about their lives and were supported to be as independent as possible. RRS guidance works to ensure that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes that include control, choice and independence.

¿ People's privacy and dignity was promoted. SLCs and scheme staff understood the Equality Act and were knowledgeable to be able to recognise and support diverse needs.

¿ Staff and SLCs were knowledgeable about how to keep people safe and how to report any concerns.

¿People's needs were assessed before they joined the scheme and where risks were identified, there were plans in place to manage these safely. Support plans detailed the needs of people and what they could manage independently.

¿ Recruitment and assessment checks were carried out before SLCs were approved to join the scheme. People were then matched to suitable SLCs who fully involved people in their home and their family life as much as people chose. There were enough staff and SLCs to meet the needs of people they supported.

¿ SLCs told us they were very well supported by the scheme's staff and they received suitable training to meet the needs of people using the service.

¿ There were systems in place to manage medicines safely. SLCs knew how to reduce any infection risks to people.

¿ People were supported to maintain their health and had access healthcare services. Staff and SLCs worked with health professionals to meet people’s needs.

¿ People were encouraged to eat healthily.

¿ People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

¿ People, SLCs and staff spoke positively about the way the registered manager ran the service.

¿ There were effective systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service provided.

¿ Feedback from people, SLCs and families was requested to help improve the service.

¿ Staff worked with other organisations and professionals to promote, plan and deliver an effective service.

Rating at last inspection: This was the first inspection of this service.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on our guidance about newly registered services.

Follow up: We will continue to review information we receive about the service until we return to visit as part of our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

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