Archived: Eltham House

Updated 25 August 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.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

Eltham House is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that 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

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since our last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service. However, some people were not able to tell us about their experience of care, in any detail, therefore we spent time observing how people were cared for and how staff interacted with them. We spoke with five members of staff including the registered manager, senior carer and support workers.

We reviewed a range of records, including three people’s care and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and reviewed records relating to the management of the service, including accidents and incidents and the provider’s policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We gathered telephone feedback from three relatives about the service provided. We looked at staff training data and sought further clarification from the registered manager about quality monitoring checks.

Updated 25 August 2021

About the service

Eltham House is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation to people with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder. Accommodation is provided in an adapted domestic style property, registered to support up to six people. On the day of our inspection six people lived at the home.

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

The management of individual risk assessments had improved and were well managed. However,

environmental risks were not always identified or assessed. People

felt safe living at Eltham House and staff understood their responsibilities to keep people safe. Staff were recruited safety and medicines were well managed and administered.

Some checks on the environment were not always effective, as they failed to identify the issues we found. People and relatives were encouraged to share their views of the service, staff felt supported and told us the service was well led. The registered manager was committed to addressing shortfalls identified during the inspection visit to improve the safety of the environment.

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.

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.

This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. People had choice and were supported to be as independent as possible. The care people received was person-centred and people’s rights to privacy, dignity and respect were upheld.

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

The last rating for this service and update was requires improvement (last report published 3 April 2020) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. Although we found improvements had been made the overall rating for the service has remained the same, as some processes and systems that have been introduced need time to become more established and provide assurances of improvement.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Eltham House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.