Highbury House

Updated 2 April 2024

Date of assessment 23 April to 30 May 2024. Highbury house is a care home providing personal care for up to 11 autistic people and people with a learning disability and physical disabilities. 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. This assessment was carried out in response to the provider’s previous inspection [21 October 2023], where the provider was rated as ‘inadequate’ and placed into special measures and there were breaches of regulation. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we user our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide. We carried out this assessment to check whether the provider had made improvements and was no longer in breach of regulation. The provider had made enough improvement and was no longer in special measures. However, further improvements were identified to the overall governance of the care and support provided to people. This was a breach of regulation. Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to this is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded. Please see the Effective and Well Led sections of this full report. The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

Updated 2 April 2024

The service was able to demonstrate they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, Right care, Right culture. However, further improvements were needed when making timely referrals to health professionals, auditing and monitoring care tasks and responding promptly to environmental concerns. People told us they felt safe living in the home and risks were managed safely. One person said, “I feel safe here. I get to choose how things are done.” Another person said, “I feel safe here. The staff know me well. The staff help me feel safe.” People told us they were supported by caring and professional staff. One person said, “I have the same staff supporting me. I like them.” Another person told us, “I think there is enough staff here to help me.” Relatives told us they felt confident to report any concerns. One relative said, “If I had any concerns, I'd speak with the manager.” People told us they felt involved with their care planning and review meetings. One person said, “Staff would tell me if anything changed in my care plan.” People told us staff supported them to engage in the activities they preferred. People told us where they could go to have their health needs met, such as doctors, dentists, and counselling services. Relatives told us they were informed when people's health needs changed. One relative said, “The provider contacts us regarding changes about [my relatives] care.” However, another relative told us communication with the provider could be improved. People and relatives told us the manager was approachable and had made improvements to the service.