Archived: Love Walk

Updated 11 May 2023

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

The inspection was carried out by three inspectors.

Service and service type

Love Walk is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent upon their registration with us. Love Walk is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

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 used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

Inspection activity started on 15 February and ended on 21 February 2023. We visited the location’s service on 15 February and returned for an unannounced out of hours visit on 21 February.

We spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager, a cleaner, 3 care staff and the nominated individual. This person is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We spoke with 7 people living at the home during the inspection. We carried out a tour of the building and we looked at how medicines were managed. We reviewed a range of records which included 7 people's care plans, medicines for 4 people, incidents and accidents, health and safety checks and quality assurance monitoring records.

Updated 11 May 2023

About the service

Love Walk provides accommodation and personal care for up to 31 people with a range of physical disabilities. At the time of the inspection, there was 28 people living at this residential home. The service is supporting one person who has a learning disability. The provider is closing the home and rebuilding a new home on the current site. They are working with the local authority to find suitable alternative placements for people during the building works.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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

Right Support: The model of care did not maximise people’s choice and independence and people were not always protected from the risk of harm.

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice. The provider was unable to provide any evidence where decisions were made in people's best interests and where people may lack capacity.

Medicines were not always managed safely as the provider was not identifying potential risks. People told us they liked living at the home and they enjoyed spending time with each other and participating in activities.

Right Care: People were not always involved in making decisions about their care as night staff were waking people up and getting them dressed despite people’s care plans recording their preferences regarding being woken up. Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people's cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care

Right Culture: Governance processes were not always effective as the registered manager did not always have clear procedures in place to monitor the home. This meant people did not always receive good care and support.

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 requires improvement (published 20 August 2022) and there were breaches of regulation.

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 the provider remained in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions Safe and well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last comprehensive inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe 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 Love Walk 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.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to consent, staffing levels and good governance. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.