Archived: HF Trust - Bramley Gardens

Updated 1 June 2015

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.

The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides supported living services in people’s own homes; we needed to be sure that people who used the service would be in.

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors and an expert by experience, this is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service. The expert by experience has experience of supporting younger people with physical and learning disabilities.

Before our inspection, we reviewed all the information we held about the home. This included previous inspection reports and any statutory notifications that had been sent to us. We contacted the local authority. We used this information to help plan the inspection. The Care Quality Commission had not requested a provider information return. This is a document that provides relevant and up to date information about the home that was provided by the registered manager or owner of the home to the Care Quality Commission.

During our inspection we used different methods to help us understand the experiences of people who used the service. We visited six supported living services and during these visits we spoke with six people who used the service. We observed how staff interacted and how people were supported. We also spoke with three people who used the service on the telephone and four relatives of people who used the service. During the inspection we spoke with 13 members of staff; seven support workers, three service managers, the operations manager, training manager and the registered manager. We looked at six people’s support plans and medication administration records for five people. We also visited the provider’s office and reviewed the records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 1 June 2015

The inspection was announced and took place over two days on 26 February and 13 March 2015. We announced the inspection because we needed to arrange visits to people who used the service. The last inspection took place on the 20 August 2013, this was a routine inspection and we found the service was compliant with the regulations.

HF Trust- Bramley Gardens is registered to provide personal care to people in their own home and in supported living services. People who use the service have physical disabilities and/or learning disabilities. The service provides support to 41 people in 29 different properties.

The service has a registered manager in post. 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 told us they felt safe. The service had a robust mechanism in place for reporting and monitoring safeguarding concerns and the registered manager was able to provide a detailed update on the safeguarding concerns which were currently being investigated by the local authority. The staff we spoke to knew how to look out for signs of abuse and who to report concerns to. We confirmed staff had received safeguarding training.

We saw medicines were managed safely and people had up to date and individual risk assessments in place.

There were enough staff available to provide people with good support and to achieve their goals. Staff told us there were always enough staff available. Some relatives were concerned about staff turnover. The service had a robust and innovative recruitment process in place.

Staff told us they felt supported, we could see the service offered staff a good induction programme and opportunities for ongoing learning and career development. The service provided staff with regular effective supervision and everyone had an annual appraisal.

We saw people had detailed assessments of their ability to make their own decisions and when they were unable to make decisions for themselves the service had ensured the relevant people discussed what was in the person’s best interests. These decisions were recorded and clear to follow. Staff had received training on the Mental Capacity Act (2005).

People had individual plans in place to ensure they had support to maintain a healthy and balanced diet. The service had developed specific guidelines to support staff to implement this and had drawn on guidance from the National Health Service (NHS).

The service worked with health care professionals to ensure people were given the right support; people were supported to attend routine appointments to maintain their health.

We saw people had a good rapport with staff. Their support plans were person centred and gave you a picture of the person who needed support and how they would like this support to be provided. People and their families had been involved in developing and reviewing these.

All of the people we spoke with were positive about the variety and amount of activities available to them. Staff supported people to engage in meaningful activity based on the person’s interests and goals.

The registered manager was looking at how they could improve learning from complaints. The service had a robust system in place to audit the service and they had a strong ethos on getting feedback from people who used the service and their friends and families.