Archived: The Horizon New Limited

Updated 15 December 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, 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.

The service had a manager who was in the process of submitting an application to register with the Care Quality Commission. Once they are registered it will mean they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 10 November and ended on 15 November 2021 We visited the office location on 12 November 2021.

What we did before the 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. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with a relative of a person who used the service about their experience of the care provided, this was because the person using the service was unable to tell us about their experience.

We spoke with 3 members of care staff including the manager, the service development manager and a director. We sought feedback from two health and social care professionals about their experience of working with The Horizon New Ltd. We received a response from one of these.

We reviewed a range of records. This included one person’s care records. We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision and a variety of records relating to the management of the service.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data, risk assessments and quality assurance records.

Updated 15 December 2021

The Horizon New Ltd provides care to people in a supported living service and an outreach service supporting people in their own homes with general welfare and social support. The service is registered to provide personal care. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting 17 people, only one person was receiving the regulated activity of personal care.

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.

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

This was a new service and was still in its infancy. The management team were very much involved in the delivery of care and supporting people. They had advocated for a person where shared housing was not suitable and not meeting their needs. The provider worked with the local authority to set up a new housing arrangement enabling the person to live on their own with a 24-hour care package in place.

Staff knew how to keep people safe and free from avoidable harm. Risk assessments were in place. Staff knew what to report to the office to ensure people were safe. Policies and procedures were in place to guide staff on keeping people safe and how to report allegations of abuse.

Staff felt supported in their roles. Regular team meetings were taking place providing staff with updates and a forum to share their views of the service. Staff had completed an induction and training relevant to their role. Further face to face training was being explored to support people that may be distressed or angry in addition to the online training they had completed.

The provider was planning to send out an annual survey to people, relatives, staff and health and social care professionals. Informal telephone contact had been made by the new manager to people using the service. Moving forward they recognised these needed to be formalised and recorded including routine spot checks of staff.

Recruitment of staff was ongoing to meet the needs of existing people receiving a service and for future new clients. Retention of staff during the pandemic had been difficult and regular and familiar agency were used to support people living in the supported housing and outreach service.

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. Care was planned with the person and tailored to their individual needs.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

People were consulted about how they wanted to be supported and care was planned with the person. Staff supported people with their goals and aspirations to live the life they aspired to enabling people to live in their own homes or shared housing.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 16/09/2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection to check whether the provider was meeting legal requirements and regulations, and to provide a rating for the service as directed by the Care Act 2014.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.