14 June 2022
During a routine inspection
31 Woodbourne Avenue is a residential care home providing the personal care to up to eight people. The service provides support to people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder. At the time of our inspection there were seven people using the service.
The care home accommodates seven people in one residential property in the London borough of Streatham.
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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We have made a recommendation in relation to staff training and records management. Staff did not receive specific training in learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorders and behaviours that may cause anxiety or distress. Statutory notifications were not always submitted in a timely manner. Risk management plans in place did not always give staff clear guidance on how to mitigate risks.
Right support: People’s identified risks were not always clearly recorded. Staff did not always receive sufficient training to support the people they were caring for. The service had enough staff, including for one-to-one support for people to take part in activities and visits how and when they wanted. Staff received support in the form of continual supervision, appraisal and recognition of good practice. People were able to eat and drink in line with their cultural preferences and beliefs. People were referred to health care professionals to support their wellbeing and help them to live healthy lives. 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: People felt valued by staff who showed genuine interest in their well-being and quality of life. Staff discussed ways of ensuring people’s goals were meaningful and spent time with people understanding how they could be achieved. People were supported to understand their rights and explore meaningful relationships. Staff had good awareness, skills and understanding of individual communication needs, they knew how to facilitate communication and when people were trying to tell them something. Staff were committed to encouraging people to undertake voluntary work, employment, vocational courses in line with their wishes and to explore new social, leisure and recreational interests.
Right culture – Systems in relation to governance were not always as effective as they could be. Managers worked directly with people and led by example. The service apologised to people, and those important to them, when things went wrong. The provider had a clear vision for the direction of the service which demonstrated ambition and a desire for people to achieve the best outcomes possible. The service worked well in partnership with other health and social care organisations, which helped to improve the wellbeing of people that used the service.
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 good (published 17.11.2017).
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support right care, right culture.
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 effective and well-led sections of this full report. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the effective 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 31 Woodbourne Avenue 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.