Archived: London Housing Trust

Updated 23 October 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 30 August 2018 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of this inspection as we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available to speak with us on the day of our inspection. The inspection team consisted of a single inspector.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. The provider had not sent us a recent Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed the information we held about the service, including any statutory notifications submitted about key events that had occurred at the service.

At this inspection we visited the provider's main office. We spoke to the registered manager. We looked at the records of the person using the service and two staff records. We also looked at other records relating to the management of the service, including the service’s policies and procedures.

We were unable to speak to the person using the service as they had been admitted to hospital. We planned to visit this person when they were discharged from hospital however we were subsequently told by the registered manager they would not be returning to the service due to their health needs that required more care and support than this service was able to provide. We spoke to one care support worker.

Updated 23 October 2018

London Housing Trust provides care to people living in their own homes. The Care Quality Commission only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’, that is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. The last inspection took place on 18 and 21 November 2016. At that time we did not give a rating to the service because there was only one person using the service and we did not have enough information about the experiences of a sufficient number of people using the service to give a rating to each of the five questions and an overall rating for the service.

This inspection took place on 30 August 2018. We were unable to give the service a rating because there was only one person using the service. During the course of the inspection the provider told us the person who used the service [and was in hospital] would not be returning because their health had deteriorated. The provider said they had applied to de-register both the provider and the registered manager with the Care Quality Commission.

The service had 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. The registered manager had a good understanding of their legal responsibilities.

We saw that the person who received the care and support from LHT was fully involved with the process. We saw evidence that they had agreed to their care plan as their signature [in agreement to the content] was on the documents we inspected. Staff told us the person’s choices to do with their care plan was respected and staff delivered support in line with the person’s wishes. Staff were able to keep the person safe from identified risks as they kept their care and support under review. Staff told us they encouraged the person to be as independent as possible and helped them develop independent living skills.

From the limited evidence available, we saw staff seemed to be caring towards the people they supported. People were able to express their views and be involved in their care.

The provider had clearly stated values and aims for the service, focussed on people experiencing good quality care and support. They had put systems in place that enabled them to monitor and review the quality of service and to deal with any complaints made by people. The provider worked in partnership with other agencies to develop and improve the delivery of care to people. Records relating to the person, staff and to the management of the service were accurate and up to date.