St Anne's Community Services - Sutherland Court

Updated 26 May 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 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. The Expert by Experience did not visit the service but made telephone calls to people’s relatives.

Service and service type

St Anne's Community Services - Sutherland Court 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.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from Healthwatch, the local safeguarding team and commissioners. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We observed how people were being supported. We spoke with four people’s relatives and seven staff including the registered manager, area manager and quality manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included medication records for all of the six people living at the home. We looked at three people’s care records in detail and aspects of care records for a further three people. We looked at a variety of records relating to staff training and recruitment, and the management of the service.

Updated 26 May 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

St Anne's Community Services - Sutherland Court 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.

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

People were protected from risk of harm and abuse because safeguarding systems were in place and staff knew what to do if they thought somebody was at risk. The service was moving away from the risk averse nature of previous practice by supporting people to have choice and control of their lives. New formats for care plans and newly developed ‘This is me’ documents demonstrated an improving approach to holistic approach that recognised people’s individuality and skills.

Medicines were managed safely. How people preferred to receive their medicines was documented within their care and support plans and we saw staff followed people’s preferences.

There were enough staff to support people. Staff were following an ongoing training plan to support them in meeting people’s needs. Staff were being supported, through training and discussion, to change the culture within the service. This was in it’s early stages, but the support being given to staff was to enable them to make improvements in promoting people’s independence and supporting them to make choices.

Systems for managing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) had been improved and information was in place to support staff in knowing what to do to meet any conditions associated with the DoLS.

People were supported to remain healthy. People enjoyed their meals and were able to make choices. Some people needed better support to make sure their diet met with their needs.

A new management and quality team had introduced governance systems to make sure people were safe and received good quality of care and support in line with their individual needs. Because the governance systems were new, we were not able, at the time of the inspection, to see how they would be used to affect change within the service.

We have made a recommendation the provider considers making changes to the way people’s feedback is analysed and summarised to reflect people’s views of individual services.

The service was able to demonstrate they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care right culture.

Right support

The new model of care aimed to maximise people's choice, control and independence. New documentation to support people’s communication needs and abilities promote independence and manage risks meant improvements were being made in making sure people were receiving the right support. People appeared relaxed and comfortable, we saw people choosing where to spend their time and engaging in activities they enjoyed or found comforting. People appeared to have a trusting relationship with staff.

Right Care

People were supported to choose their activities and contact with their families or advocates was promoted. The introduction of the ‘This is me’ documents showed staff were working with people and their families to identify what was important to them, what their goals and aims were and how they preferred to receive the care and support they needed.

Right culture

The management and quality team were supporting staff to change the culture in the service. The review of systems, better staff training and promotion of a less risk averse and more person- centred approach to care meant people were receiving the care and support they needed.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was inadequate (published 25 August 2021)

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service in June 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve Person-centred care, Need for consent, Staffing and Good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective, Responsive and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For the key question not inspected, we used the rating awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Anne's Community Services - Sutherland Court on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the relevant key question Safe, Effective, Responsive and Well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Anne's Community Services - Sutherland Court 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.

Special Measures:

This service has been in Special Measures since August 2021. During this inspection the provider demonstrated improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.