Lanchester Court

Updated 21 September 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

Three inspectors carried out this inspection.

Service and service type

Lanchester Court 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

We gave the provider 24 hours' notice of the inspection. This allowed the provider time to let people know we would be visiting and provide us with records for review as part of the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we held about the service, including the notifications we had received from the provider. Notifications are changes, events or incidents the provider is legally obliged to send us within required timescales.

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.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people and three relatives about their experience of the care provided.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people's care records. We spoke with three members of staff, including the registered manager, deputy manager, operations, and four care staff.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We emailed five further members of staff for their feedback, as well as two further health and social care professionals. We reviewed training information, recruitment information, policies, surveys, newsletters, and quality assurance records.

Updated 21 September 2021

About the service

Lanchester Court provides residential and nursing care and support for people with learning, neurological and physical disabilities. The service is registered to support up to 22 people. At the time of inspection, 21 people were living at the service.

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

Improvements had been made with regard to the management of medicines. People received medicines safely from staff who were competent and appropriately trained.

The provider had in place systems and processes to ensure people were safe. People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse. Staff liaised well with external safeguarding professionals.

People's support focused on their safety and basic needs. There were a range of examples of positive health outcomes for people. Some people had relished opportunities to gain new skills and become more independent.

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 some of the underpinning principles of Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture. Person-centred care was not however fully embedded into practice and outcomes for people’s independence and empowerment were at times inconsistent. We have made a recommendation about the need to improve person-centred care outcomes.

More could be made of the facilities, and the opportunities people could be enabled to pursue, to enable this independence. For instance, the outdoor spaces and the skills kitchen, both of which were under-utilised.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People told us staff were kind, and respectful. People were involved in the care planning and review process; their preferences informed care plans and communication strategies.

There was a positive culture amongst the staff at the service. People were valued as individuals and encouraged to play a part in how the service was run. The atmosphere was relaxed and homely.

The registered manager and deputy worked well together and were keen to continually improve the service. External professionals were consistent in their praise of the openness and of the leadership team.

The registered manager and deputy manager were responsive to feedback during the inspection and during follow up. However there were areas of care plans and risk assessments which required improvement. The provider's auditing processes had not identified these areas. We have made a recommendation about this.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

This last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 13 November 2019), where a breach of regulation was identified. 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

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

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