Avondale Mental Healthcare Centre

Updated 18 January 2022

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.

As part of CQC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic we are looking at how services manage infection control and visiting arrangements. This was a targeted inspection looking at the infection prevention and control measures the provider had in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 13 January 2022 and was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection.

Updated 18 January 2022

About the service

Avondale Mental Healthcare Centre is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to adults where their primary needs are associated with their mental health. They provide long-term placement, respite and rehabilitation for up to 54 people. There were 48 people using the service at the time of our inspection.

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

People were supported and encouraged to live enriched lives and to be as independent as possible. The highly diverse skills and knowledge across the senior staff and clinical leads had resulted in consistently better outcomes for people.

People spoke highly of the care and support they received and told us how their life had been significantly improved as a result. The development of people’s skills and abilities was paramount in the planning, assessing and delivery of care and support. The service was passionate about providing people with the tools needed to live a more independent life and move from Avondale in to more independent living.

Extremely effective relationships had been developed with other health and social care professionals resulting in significant improvements to people’s health and well-being. Professionals spoke highly of the standard of care people received and gave many examples of where lives had been positively impacted upon due to the excellent collaborative working.

Staff were provided with the skills they needed to deliver a high standard of care and spoke extremely highly of the training and support they received. The internal 'educator' was passionate about their role. Their continuous visibility and the various methods of training used meant that learning and development needs were quickly identified and addressed.

The excellent standard of learning and development had been extended to university students who also spoke highly of the training and support they received. Being an ‘accredited’ tutor meant that universities had confidence in the trainer's abilities to assess the work completed whilst the students were on work placement at Avondale.

The extremely positive relationships that had developed between staff and people resulted in positive impacts on people’s well-being. People spoke highly of the caring approach of all staff and told us how happy they were to be living at Avondale. They told us they felt listened to and respected by staff and could talk to them about any concerns they had. People told us their lives had got better because of the support staff gave them.

The leadership of the service demonstrated a high level of experience and capability to deliver excellent care; they were extremely knowledgeable and inspired confidence and passion in the staff team. The management team placed strong emphasis on developing people’s abilities and empowering then to become more independent.

People told us they felt safe living at Avondale and that staff were always around to help when they needed it. Staff knew how to recognise abuse and were confident in reporting any concerns. Risks to people had been assessed and detailed plans were in place to manage these whilst supporting people to live as unrestricted a life as possible.

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.

Staff supported people to access a range of activities both within the home and in the community. Activities were used as a way to help develop people’s skills and independence and promote positive outcomes for people.

The service had been recognised by healthcare professionals for their advanced holistic approach to the planning of end-of-life care and the impact this had, both on people and family members.

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 10 March 2017)

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. The service had improved on the quality of care provided and has been rated outstanding overall.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.