Archived: York House

Updated 9 December 2016

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 16 and 19 September 2016 and was unannounced. The inspection team comprised of one inspector.

As part of our inspection we spoke with the local authority to share information they held about the home. We also looked at information we held about the provider to see if we had received any concerns or compliments about the home. We reviewed information of statutory notifications we had received from the provider. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We used this information to help us plan our inspection of the home.

During the inspection we spoke with two people who used the service, five staff members, a compliance manager, a registered manager from another home within the organisation. We looked at one care plan and a risk assessment, medication administration records and accident reports.

A number of people at the home during the inspection were unable to talk to us. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

Updated 9 December 2016

This inspection was unannounced and took place on 16 and 19 September 2016.

York House provides accommodation and personal care for up to ten people who have a learning disability.

The home had a registered manager but they were not present for the inspection. The provider had made arrangements for a registered manager from another service within their organisation to run the home in the absence of the home’s registered manager. Reference to the registered manager in this report relates to this person. A registered 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 not always supported to take their medicines and they did not always receive their prescribed treatment. People were not always protected from poor care practices because staff did not act on this to protect them. The provider had taken action to provide additional staffing so people would receive a better service. People were protected from the risk of accidents because knew how to reduce the risk of this happening.

The provider had taken action to provide staff with one to one [supervision] sessions to assist them in providing a better service for people. The provider had also taken measures to ensure new staff were supported in their role. People were cared for by staff who had access to routine training to ensure they had the skills to care and support them.

Staff had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, but their knowledge was not always put into practice to ensure decisions made on people's behalf was in their best interest. People had a choice of meals and had access to drinks at all times. People were supported to access healthcare services when needed to promote their health.

Staff demonstrated a good understanding of how to promote people’s right to privacy and dignity but this was not always put into practice. People’s support and care needs may not be met because not all the staff were aware of their needs.

Practices did not support people to be involved in their assessment of their needs, so people may not receive a service specific to their needs. People had limited access to their local community and they were not always supported to do the things they enjoyed.

People were unable to tell staff if they were unhappy but staff knew by their body language and facial expression. Systems were in place to manage complaints and to show what action had been taken to resolve them.

The home was managed by a registered manager and two compliance managers. Prior to our inspection the provider had taken action to improve the service provided to people. The culture of the home was not inclusive to support people to have a say in how the home was run. The provider’s governance was not effective to ensure people received a good service. However, the provider was confident their governance was effective if implemented properly and managers were in place to ensure this.