Archived: London Care (Truscott House)

Updated 10 April 2019

The inspection:

• We carried out our inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. Our inspection checked whether the provider was 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.

Inspection team:

• Our inspection was completed by one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. Their area of expertise was as a family carer of older people and people with dementia.

Service and service type:

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

• The service is required to have 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. A registered manager was in post.

Notice of inspection:

• Our inspection was announced.

• We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because staff were often out of the service or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

• Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We also checked for feedback we received from members of the public, the local authority and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). We checked records held by Companies House and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

• We asked the service to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once a year to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

• We spoke with ten people who used the service.

• We spoke with the registered manager, the area manager, the regional manager, team leader and three care workers.

• We reviewed three people’s care records and medicines records, three staff personnel files, audits and other records about the management of the service.

Updated 10 April 2019

About the service:

• The service is an extra care service. This service provides care and support to people living in one ‘extra care’ scheme, so that they can live as independently as possible. The scheme had 40 flats and 23 people were using the service at the time of our inspection.

• The service supports people with a range of needs including mental health issues, physical disabilities and older people who require assistance with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People received a good standard of care in all areas. The service met the characteristics for a rating of “good” in all the key questions.

• People and staff developed positive relationships. Staff treated people with dignity and respect and respected their privacy. People were supported to maintain their independence and were involved in their care.

• People’s day to day healthcare needs were met and people received their choice of food.

• People received care from staff who were well supported with induction, training and ongoing supervision.

• The service was led by an experienced, competent registered manager who understood their role and responsibilities, as did staff. The service had a clear management strucure and people had confidence in the registered manager and provider.

• The provider had good systems to oversee the service. These included electronic monitoring of staff training, supervision and appraisal, any complaints, accidents, incidents or safeguarding and care plan reviews.

Our overall rating for the service after this inspection was “good”.

• More information is in our full report.

Rating at last inspection:

• This was our first inspection of the service since it registered with us in May 2018. The service was previously registered under a different provider.

Why we inspected:

• All services are inspected within one year of registering with us. This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, compassionate, high quality care. Further inspections will be planned for in line with our inspection schedule or in response to concerns.