Background to this inspection
Updated
19 December 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 comprehensive inspection tool place on 15 November 2018 and was unannounced.
The inspection team consisted of one inspector. Prior to the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service including information from notifications. Notifications are events that happen in the home that the registered provider and registered manager are required to tell us about. We also considered the last inspection report, the Information supplied by the provider (PIR) and information that had been supplied by other agencies. We also contacted commissioners who had a contract with the home to support people who lived there.
During the inspection we met seven of the eight people who were living in the home. We spent our time in the company of people using the service provided and with staff who provided the direct care. The people living in the home were unable to communicate verbally due to their health conditions and used individualised methods of communicating with staff supporting them. Staff were familiar with and understood their communication methods. We spent time observing people in the communal areas of the home. We saw how they were being cared for and supported by staff and used these observations to help us understand peoples’ experience of living at the home.
We spoke with the registered manager and four members of staff. We looked care records of one person in full, looking at care plans, health action plans and medication administration records. We sampled other records of care that had been provided. We looked at some records related to the management of the home. These included records relating to audits and systems in the home including some records of the checks of safety procedures.
Following the visit, we spoke by phone with three relatives of people who used the service to obtain their views about the care and support provided.
Updated
19 December 2018
Sense – Gillott Road is a registered 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 care home operates as two separate units with an interconnecting door between both houses.
The accommodation for people is spread over ground and first floors of two houses. People have shared access to communal rooms and bathrooms and although they do go into the unit where they do not live this is only to engage in specific activities. At the time of the inspection the home was fully occupied by eight people who had all lived there for some time and included people living with sensory impairments and learning disabilities.
The care service had not originally been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen. However, it was clear that people were given choices and their independence and participation within the local community was being encouraged.
At our last inspection in March 2016 we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.
There was a registered manager in post who was there at the time of the inspection. 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.
People continued to receive care that protected them to keep safe and staff understood how to protect people from abuse and harm. Risks to people were assessed and detailed guidance about how to manage these was available for staff to refer to and follow. People received medicines safely as they were prescribed.
People continued to receive effective support from staff who had a sufficient level of skills and knowledge to meet their specific needs. People were supported by staff in the least restrictive way possible to have maximum choice and control of their lives in line with their abilities and known preferences. Staff involved people as much as possible to make decisions and utilised and shared information to ensure that they fully explored what the person liked to do.
People continued to be cared for by staff who displayed kindness and compassion in ways that upheld their privacy and dignity. Staff ensured that people were supported to make choices and maintain a good level of independence in line with their abilities and wishes. People’s diverse needs were well known, always recognised and support and access to activities was supported and enabled by staff.
People using the service were well known by staff and the staff team continued to work consistently to ensure that support provided respected their needs. People’s own individual communications methods were well known and consistently used by staff who were keen to advocate on behalf of people whenever they were indicating that they were unhappy, were showing dissatisfaction or demonstrating in any way that they were not at ease.
The care home continued to be well-led. The registered manager who had commenced working in the home earlier in the year was making full use of checks and monitoring arrangements to maintain and build on the quality of the service that was provided.
Further information is in the detailed findings below.