Archived: Thoughts of Others Limited

Updated 22 June 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 the 09 May 2018 and was unannounced. The inspection team consisted of one inspector and a specialist nurse advisor.

As part of the inspection process we looked at information we already held about the provider. Providers are required to notify the Care Quality Commission about specific events and incidents that occur including serious injuries to people receiving care and any incidences that put people at risk of harm. We refer to these as notifications. We checked if the provider had sent us notifications in order to plan the areas we wanted to focus on during our inspection.

We asked social workers at three local authorities responsible for commissioning placements at the home if they had any information to share with us about the service. The local authorities are responsible for monitoring the quality and for funding people receiving care support.

During our inspection we spoke to two young people who lived at the home and used different methods to gather experiences of what it was like to live at the home. We spoke to the registered manager, the acting manager, one senior residential worker and four residential care workers. We looked at records relating to the management of the service such as, care plans for three people, the incident and accident records, three staff recruitment files, Medicine Administration Record (MAR) for two people, audit records and young people’s meeting minutes.

Updated 22 June 2018

This inspection was unannounced and took place on 09 May 2018.

We last inspected the Thoughts of Others on 15 March 2016, when we rated it as ‘good.’ The home is registered to provide accommodation and personal care, for a maximum of four people young people (aged 13 – 18) and there were three young people living at the home on the day of the inspection. At this inspection we found overall the rating was still good, but the rating for well led is now 'requires improvement' as there were some areas in the way in which the service was managed that needed improving.

A registered manager was in place. A 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 were cared for by staff who were trained in recognising and understanding how to report potential abuse. Staff knew how to raise any concerns about people’s safety and shared information so that people’s safety needs were met.

People were supported by staff to take their medicines and records were completed by staff to record when medicines had been administered.

Staff were available to meet people’s individual needs promptly and demonstrated good knowledge about people living at the home. Staff told us training helped them meet the specific needs of the people they supported and they attended regular training to ensure they kept their knowledge updated.

People’s consent was appropriately obtained by staff when caring for them and people's rights were protected because key processes had been followed to ensure people were not unlawfully restricted.

People were involved in developing how they wanted to be supported and were encouraged to be as independent as possible. They were supported to access healthcare appointments and to maintain a healthy diet which reflected their choices and preferences.

People said staff were caring and we saw they were relaxed around the staff supporting them. We heard and saw positive communication throughout our inspection and saw people smiling and responding positively to staff. Staff showed us that they knew the interests, likes and dislikes of people and people were supported to enjoy various activities. We saw that staff ensured that they were respectful of people’s choices and decisions.

At the time of our inspection a copy of completed provider audits were not available to us, therefore we were not able to assess if these audits were effective in identifying areas for improvement and evidence of how required improvements were monitored for their effectiveness once they had been put into place.

A programme of regular checks where completed by the acting manager to review areas such as medication, care plans and equipment checks. However, we found that these audits had not been robust in findings some areas requiring improvement.

People and staff were positive about the service and the way it was managed for the people that lived there. The acting manager and the registered manager demonstrated clear leadership and staff were supported to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively, so that people received care and support in-line with their needs and wishes.