Dimensions Somerset The Old Police House

Updated 17 June 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

Two inspectors, a member of the CQC medicines team and an Expert by Experience carried out the inspection: An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Dimensions Somerset The Old Police 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 inspection

We looked at all the information we had received about and from the home. 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

Two Inspectors and a member of the CQC medicines team visited Dimensions Somerset The Old Police House on 10 May 2022. We spoke/ communicated with five people who used the service. The people we met were not able to verbally communicate with us. Their opinions were captured through reactions to observations and interactions they had with staff.

We spoke with five members of staff including the registered manager, peripatetic assistant locality manager and operations director.

We checked four people’s medicines records and looked at arrangements for administering, storing and managing medicines.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

An Expert by Experience spoke with four relatives about their family member's experience of the care provided.

After the inspection

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

Updated 17 June 2022

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Dimensions Somerset The Old Police House is a residential care home providing personal care to five people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to eight people.

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

This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support

Staff supported people with their medicines. Some improvements were needed to the way medicines were checked in, and when staff needed to make handwritten amendments to people’s medicines administration charts. This had already been identified by the registered manager.

Staff supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence and to be in control over their own lives; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were supported to be involved in decisions about their care and support. Staff were observed communicating with people in ways that met their needs and supporting people to make choices.

Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life.

Staff supported people to be occupied at home and pursue interests in their local area if they enjoyed this. People were starting to return to activities that had been paused during the pandemic.

The service gave people care and support in a safe, clean and well-equipped environment that met their sensory and physical needs.

People benefitted from an interactive and stimulating environment. An immersive room had recently been added to the home which provided a multi-sensory experience for people.

People had a choice about their living environment and people’s rooms were observed to be personalised to them.

Staff worked with health professionals to achieve good health outcomes and to avoid people taking unnecessary medicines.

Infection control procedures and measures were in place to protect people from infection control risks associated with COVID-19.

Right Care

People’s care plans and risk assessments reflected their range of needs and this promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life. Some risk assessments were found not to have been reviewed. This had already been identified by the registered manager.

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. Throughout the inspection we observed kind, relaxed, compassionate and caring interactions between people and staff.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs.

People who had individual ways of communicating, using body language, sounds and pictures interacted comfortably with staff and others involved in their care. This was because staff had the necessary skills to understand them.

Right culture

People received good quality care and support because trained staff could meet their needs and wishes. At the last inspection people with specific health needs were not always being supported by staff who had received up to date training from professionals on specialist techniques. Despite communication with various other professionals to source the training, the service has not yet been able to obtain this.

People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff. Throughout the inspection we observed that staff were respectful of people and took time to offer support and reassurance when needed.

Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing.

Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff told us that they “Make [people] the centre of everything they do”.

Staff valued and acted upon people’s views and understood how these were expressed through observations, body language and how people presented themselves.

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care.

The staff, registered manager and peripatetic assistant locality manager were open and transparent throughout our inspection. The registered manager and peripatetic assistant locality manager acted efficiently on queries and feedback throughout the inspection.

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

Rating at last inspection

The rating at the last inspection was Good. (Published August 2018)

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support right care right culture.

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.

This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection, that rated those

key questions, to calculate the overall rating. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Dimensions Somerset The Old Police 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.