Archived: Earlmont House

Updated 17 September 2019

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in one ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave a short period notice of the inspection because the service is people’s own homes, as they have a tenancy agreement and we wanted to let them know of the inspection visit to their home.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We reviewed statutory notifications that the provider had sent to the CQC. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

We received feedback about the service, via email, from a health care professional.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service about their experience of the support provided. We met with the area director, registered manager, a senior support worker, a support worker and a visiting social care professional.

We reviewed a range of records. This included one person’s care records and a small sample of care related documents for a second person and one person’s medication records. We looked at one staff file in relation to recruitment, training and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 17 September 2019

About the service

Earlmont House is a supported living service. The service can support up to 10 people living with mental health needs. There were seven people living in the service at the time of the inspection.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

At the August 2018 inspection we found audits and checks did not effectively identify issues or record action taken to make changes and drive improvements. At this inspection we found improvements had been made.

People's medicines were managed safely and effectively. Accidents and incidents were investigated.

There was a clear management and staffing structure in place. The provider had quality assurance

systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service.

People were positive about living in the service. They felt they had the right amount of support and advice from the staff team.

People were involved in the development and review of their support plans and risk assessments. They could give their views on what support they needed and where they wanted to gain daily living skills. This included help with healthy eating and attending health and social care appointments.

Professionals were positive about the support people received and confirmed staff worked in partnership with the community mental health team.

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.

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 25 September 2018) and there was one breach of the 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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of the regulation.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Earlmont House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.