Archived: Paul Clarke Home

Updated 18 December 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.

This inspection took place on 9 February 2015 and was unannounced.

The inspection was completed by an inspector and an expert by experience and their supporter.

An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. Our expert had experience of living with a learning disability and receiving services.

We looked at the information we held about the service including statutory notifications. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. We spoke with other agencies that had an interest in the home such as the local authority commissioners and the safeguarding team. Commissioners are people who work to find appropriate care and support services which are paid for by the local authority.

The local authority safeguarding team were monitoring the service because of some concerns into aspects of care and reviews of people’s care needs were being carried out. The investigations had not been completed at the time of the inspection.

We asked the provider to send us information about the service in the form of 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. This wasn’t returned before the inspection took place.

We spoke with three staff, six people who used the service and the interim manager. We looked at the care records of two people and other records relating to the management of the home. These included staff recruitment and training records, medication records and health and safety assessments.

Updated 18 December 2015

We inspected Paul Clarke Home on 09 February 2015. The inspection was unannounced.

Paul Clarke Home provides accommodation and care for up to 11 people who may have a learning disability.

There was a manager registered to manage the home. 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. At the time of the inspection the registered manager was suspended from duty pending the outcome of a local authority investigation into some aspects of the care provided to people who use the service.

Staff understanding of the principles of The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) were limited. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) set out the requirements that ensure where appropriate, decisions are made in people’s best interests when they are unable to do this for themselves.

Staff had not received regular opportunities to discuss their practice or had received a formal one to one appraisal of how they were performing. These important quality checks of staff practice ensure a provider is actively reviewing the quality of care provided to ensure it meets expected standards.

People who used the service had some opportunities to access the community and to be involved in recreational activities but this was limited.

The provider had not ensured that checks of the quality of the service had been completed regularly, or that people who used the service and their supporter’s views were sought on the running of the home.

Staff understood how to recognise and report suspected abuse and knew how to ‘blow the whistle’ if they were aware of poor practice.

Staff were properly recruited and were able to meet people’s needs. They confirmed they received essential training and updates. Medicines were managed, stored and administered appropriately.

Care was planned and people received the health support they needed. People who used the service, could choose what they had to eat and had access to assist with meal preparation if they needed to. Weekly meetings were planned with people to plan the following weeks, activities, and domestic tasks, with each person involved in some sort of domestic role.

There was evidence of positive relations between staff and people who used the service, the atmosphere was welcoming and friendly and staff knew how to meet people’s needs.

We found there were breaches of the regulations we inspection against. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.