Tenancy Support Service Cumbernauld Housing Support Service Housing and Social Work Services 26 Parkfoot Street Kilsyth Glasgow G65 9AA Telephone: 01236 828 103 Type of inspection: Announced (short notice) Inspection completed on: 3 November 2017 Service provided by: North Lanarkshire Council Service provider number: SP2003000237 Care service number: CS2004069014
About the service Tenancy Support Service Cumbernauld is provided by North Lanarkshire Council. The service was previously registered with the Care Commission and transferred its registration to the Care Inspectorate on 1 April 2011. The aim of the service is to provide housing support to people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless by focusing on their housing support needs and tenancy sustainment. The service is provided to people living in the Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Moodiesburn areas of North Lanarkshire who reside in a variety of accommodation types including a temporary accommodation unit, dispersed accommodation provided by North Lanarkshire Council, with family/friends and in their own tenancies. At the time of the inspection, support was being provided to around 50 individuals by a team of housing advisors and accommodation staff. Support was provided to the team by the support coordinator and registered manager. The team had access to a welfare rights advisor who helped ensure that eligible people receiving the service could access their entitlement to benefits. What people told us During the inspection, we obtained feedback from speaking to four people who used the service. A further four people completed and returned our care standards questionnaires to us prior to the inspection. People were overall happy with the support they received and comments included: 'My worker has gone over and above the call of duty, I would honestly be lost without her. She has helped me so much, the whole service has. It's been overwhelming.' 'Yes I think the support has been excellent, nothing they could do differently or better.' 'I am happy to be here, it is better than I expected it to be.' One person expressed some negative views about the service that we followed up with relevant staff and the manager. We made a recommendation in relation to this. Self assessment We did not ask the provider to submit a self assessment to us this year. We looked at the previous year's self assessment and the provider's own improvement plan. We could see that this was fairly robust and that some areas of improvement had already been addressed. page 2 of 6
From this inspection we graded this service as: Quality of care and support Quality of staffing Quality of management and leadership 5 - Very Good 5 - Very Good not assessed What the service does well We saw that people who used the service were well consulted as to how the service could improve. There was a range of systems used within the service to support this including surveys, reviews and preparation for the annual event for people using the service. We were pleased to see how the service sought people's views in preparation for this event so that it could make the event more enjoyable and promote attendance. Additionally, we were impressed to see that feedback was given to people who used the service in response to their suggestions so that they knew if their ideas would be taken forward. This demonstrated that the service was working well in delivering person centred support, and that there was a positive and inclusive culture. We observed staff interactions with people who used the service. We found these to be respectful and supportive, with a focus on promoting people to develop their skills and become more independent. Feedback from people who used the service was broadly positive. Staff were positive about their roles and the support they received from the management team. We saw that staff had a good degree of autonomy over their workloads, which helped staff to develop their leadership skills. Communication and quality assurance processes included audits and regular staff meetings to aid the planning and ongoing improvement of the service. These helped the staff to deliver quality support to people. There was a positive, respectful and supportive culture within the service supported by effective supervision and annual performance reviews. These helped staff to identify learning needs which they told us were responded to proactively by the service. We looked at the service improvement plan. We noted that some areas that were identified in the plan had already been acted on and completed with others continuing to be worked on. The plan had been informed by various quality measures including input from the provider's Continuous Improvement Group that aimed to ensure consistent improvement across the provider's services. What the service could do better We noted that the support files contained risk assessments that were completed with people using the service at the beginning of the support. We noted that although there was evidence that the risk assessments were reviewed, they often lacked detail in relation to measures to control or minimise the risks identified. Since this issue was an area for improvement at the last inspection, and we did not see significant improvement, we have made this a recommendation. (See recommendation 1) page 3 of 6
We visited the accommodation unit on the second day of the inspection where we spoke to two people who used the service. We discussed some of the comments made by one person with the registered manager and accommodation officer, as these indicated a lack of proactive support and support around tenancy sustainment. We felt concerned that the focus on tenancy sustainment needed to be more embedded in practice within this part of the service. The manager agreed that this should be a strong focus across the service, and planned to discuss this further with the manager of the accommodation unit. We have made a recommendation about this. (See recommendation 2) The service used questionnaires with people to assess how well they felt they had been supported. Whilst we saw that actions were taken locally to feedback to people individually, it would be helpful if these findings were incorporated into the overall improvement of the service. The findings from these surveys should be included within the service development plan so that progress can be reviewed and so that the survey process is as meaningful as possible. Whilst we were confident that people were supported in a very person-centred way, we found that the support plan documentation did not reflect this, and it was still difficult to see what personal outcomes people aimed to achieve. We noted that this issue formed part of the ongoing improvement plan, and that the main obstacle to this had been IT systems. Since the provider had already identified this, and had plans in place to address it, we have decided to follow this up at the next inspection. However, this must be given due priority in order to ensure that systems in place within the service support a person-centred and outcome focused approach. Requirements Number of requirements: 0 Recommendations Number of recommendations: 2 1. The provider should ensure that individual risk assessments that are in place for people using the service are robust and effective. They should be reviewed in line with the provider's policy and as soon as there is a change to the person's needs. The risk assessment should detail control measures that are to be put in place in order to remove or reduce the risk. National Care Standards, Housing Support Services, Standard 3: Management and Arrangements. 2. The provider should ensure that the ethos and approaches related to the principles of tenancy sustainment are fully embedded in practice within the accommodation unit. National Care Standards, Housing Support Services, Standard 3: Management and Arrangements. page 4 of 6
Complaints There have been no complaints upheld since the last inspection. Details of any older upheld complaints are published at www.careinspectorate.com Inspection and grading history Date Type Gradings 30 Nov 2015 Announced (short notice) Care and support Management and leadership 15 Nov 2013 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very good 22 Sep 2010 Announced Care and support 5 - Very good 4 - Good Management and leadership 4 - Good 23 Sep 2009 Announced Care and support 4 - Good 3 - Adequate Management and leadership 3 - Adequate 28 Nov 2008 Announced Care and support 4 - Good 3 - Adequate Management and leadership 3 - Adequate page 5 of 6
To find out more This inspection report is published by the Care Inspectorate. You can download this report and others from our website. Care services in Scotland cannot operate unless they are registered with the Care Inspectorate. We inspect, award grades and help services to improve. We also investigate complaints about care services and can take action when things aren't good enough. Please get in touch with us if you would like more information or have any concerns about a care service. You can also read more about our work online at www.careinspectorate.com Contact us Care Inspectorate Compass House 11 Riverside Drive Dundee DD1 4NY enquiries@careinspectorate.com 0345 600 9527 Find us on Facebook Twitter: @careinspect Other languages and formats This report is available in other languages and formats on request. Tha am foillseachadh seo ri fhaighinn ann an cruthannan is cànain eile ma nithear iarrtas. page 6 of 6