About the service Meadow Lodge is a residential respite service located in Chippenham, Wiltshire. It provides short term care breaks for adults with a learning disability and autism. The service can accommodate up to four people at a time. At the time of our inspection there were four people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
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.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
Right support
People had their care and support needs assessed before they started to use the service and reviewed at each respite stay. People's independence was promoted. People’s relatives told us how people’s social activities had increased, and staff had supported and encouraged them to go to places that interested them with their friends. Staff supported people to take part in activities and pursue their interests in their local area. There was a complaints procedure in place in formats that people could understand. Risks to people had been assessed to ensure their needs were met safely. People's medicines were managed safely. Staff followed government guidance in relation to infection prevention and control.
Right care
People received kind and compassionate care from staff who wanted to have a positive impact on people’s lives. Staff protected and respected people's privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. People had access to health care professionals when they needed them. People and their relatives told us they felt safe. Comments included, “It's a safe environment for [name] and it works really well” and, “I don’t have to worry about [name] coming here at all.” There were safeguarding procedures in place and staff had a clear understanding of these. Robust recruitment checks had taken place before staff started working at the service.
Right culture
People received good quality care, support and treatment because staff had been trained to carry out their roles and were supported by a team leader and manager. People, and those important to them, were involved in planning their support. The registered manager and staff worked in partnership with health and social care providers to deliver an effective service. Staff were knowledgeable about people's support needs as well as people's preferences for how they wanted to be supported. Comments from people and relatives included, “It’s a home from home” and, “[Name] loves it. [They] are always dressed and ready to leave on the days [they] go to stay at Meadow Lodge.” There was a complaints procedure in place and people knew how to complain if they needed to.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was Good (published 04 December 2017). At this inspection the service remained Good.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
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.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Meadow Lodge on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.