Redpoll Lane

Redpoll Lane is a 2-storey residential care home. The service is registered for personal care and support for up to 2 people.

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.

Right Support: People were supported by their staff team who knew them well in a respectful way. Independence was promoted and people were encouraged to access the local community and engage in activities of their choice. Where people did not have capacity to make decisions for themselves, appropriate procedures were in place to ensure people’s best interest was at the heart of everything people did.

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

Right Care: Care was person centred and positive professional relationships were observed during the inspection. People received support from skilled staff who were able to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people.

Right Culture: There were concerns in relation to infection prevention and control, areas of the environment presented a health and safety risk due to poor maintenance of the service. This was discussed with the registered manager.

Support was tailored around meeting the individual needs of people they supported. Flexibility in the support provided ensured people had choice and control over support they received. Staff enjoyed working in the service and were supported by management.

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 the service was Good (published 28 October 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all inspection reports and timeline’s link for Redpoll Lane on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified a breach in relation to infection prevention and control. There were areas within the home that required maintenance as they were an infection risk.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Redpoll Lane is a semi–detached house located in a residential area of Warrington. It is registered to provide personal care for people who require support by staff on a twenty four hour basis. Each person has their own bedroom upstairs and share a kitchen, bathroom and lounge on the ground floor. There are gardens at the front and back of the house and parking outside.

Staff knew the people they were supporting well and provided a personalised service. Individual personalised care plans, based on a full assessment of need, were in place detailing how people wished to be supported. This helped ensure that personal care was provided in a structured and consistent manner.

We could see the people who lived there had good trusting relations ships with the staff and were able to make their needs known. It was vitally important that staff responded to each person’s needs, concerns and changes in mood in a positive and effective manner. We found that staff were skilled in this respect. They were able to communicate effectively with the people who lived at the home and were able to offer reassurance and support when required.

There was a registered manager in place at the home. 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Staff were appropriately recruited, trained and supported. They had undergone an induction programme, completed mandatory training and where necessary, had received additional training specific to the needs of the people they were supporting. Internal and external trainers were being sourced by the provider.

Communication was effective and regular meetings were held to discuss concerns. Staff demonstrated a caring approach and understood their roles and responsibilities and spoke enthusiastically about the work they did and the people they cared for.

Healthcare professionals were involved in people’s care and were being called upon for advice when appropriate.

The staff we spoke with had a good understanding of Safeguarding and the different types of abuse. There was a whistle blowing policy and staff knew what to do if they were concerned about any practices they observed placed the person they were supporting at risk of harm.

Safe medication management systems were in place and when we identified the need for timed intervals to be documented for one person’s PRN {Pro re nata, as and when prescribed medication}, the registered manager actioned this immediately.

We found risk assessments were also in place to effectively identify and manage potential risks.

Governance and quality assurance systems were in place with regular audits of the service. A complaints policy and process was in place and a system of recording all compliments and complaints.

People’s views were sought in a range of ways from asking relatives and healthcare professionals for their views, involving independent advocates for people and ensuring people were being provided with opportunities to make their own choices and to make decisions. Best interests processes were being followed when appropriate.

We spoke with the staff members on duty during the visit. They were knowledgeable about the different needs of the people living at Redpoll Lane and how they showed their feelings and views.

The staff members we spoke with showed that they had a good understanding of the people they were supporting and they were able to meet their various needs. We saw that they were interacting well with people in order to ensure that they received the care and support they needed. The relationships we saw were warm, respectful, dignified and with plenty of smiles.

We did not have any concerns regarding either the numbers or suitability of the staff members working at the home.

The staff members we spoke to were very positive about the home and the standard of support that people were receiving.