Archived: Walsingham Support - Sycamore House

Updated 23 June 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

This inspection took place on the 12 May 2016 and was unannounced.

The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector and a specialist professional advisor. The specialist advisor was an experienced and well qualified occupational therapist who taught the subject at degree level.

Before the inspection the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed the information we held about the service, such as notifications we had received from the registered provider. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We planned the inspection using this information.

We spoke with four of the people who used the service and six members of staff including the locality manager who had leadership responsibilities within the service. The registered manager was not present at the inspection.

We looked at four written records of care and other policies and records that related to the service. We looked at two staff files which included supervision, appraisal and induction. We saw a record of training and a training plan. We looked at quality monitoring documents.

Updated 23 June 2016

This unannounced inspection took place on 12 May 2016. This was our first inspection of the service.

Walsingham Support - Sycamore House (Sycamore House) contains eight flats where people have their own tenancies. The flats were purpose built for people living with disability. Walsingham Support provide care and support from this location to eight people who live in these tenancies. The organisation has office space in the building. People who live in Sycamore House can also access support from other providers if they choose to do so.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

Risk assessments were carried out and plans put in place to reduce risks to people’ safety and welfare.

Staff working in the service were aware of different types of abuse and knew how to report it. The service had clear policies relating to safeguarding.

Medicines were stored in people’s own homes and managed appropriately. People received support with their medicines from appropriately trained staff.

Staff had been provided with mandatory training. Staff had undertaken additional vocational qualifications. The service could access different types of training to ensure they met people’s needs.

The service assessed people’s nutritional and hydration needs and provided support accordingly. This included helping people to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Staff had developed good relationships with people and communicated in a warm and caring manner. People who used the service were complimentary of the way staff cared for them

Staff were aware of how to treat people with dignity and respect. Policies were in place that outlined acceptable standards in this area.

Support plans were easy to read and based on assessment and reflected the needs of people.

There was a complaints procedure in place that outlined how to make a complaint and how long it would take to deal with.

The management team had a clear idea about the future of the service and were keen that people were supported to be as independent as possible.

We made a recommendation that the service reviewed its storage of archived records.