Walmley House

Updated 8 February 2022

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 undertaken by one inspector.

Service and service type

Walmley House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the nominated individual are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. At the time of the inspection, the service manager was unavailable.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced 24 hours prior to inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider completed a provider information return on 10 July 2021. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with four members of staff including two senior care workers and a care worker. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. The registered manager was unavailable during the inspection.

We also spoke with the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures 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 as well as audits and policies. We spoke with one relative and three professionals who regularly have contact with people who use the service.

Updated 8 February 2022

About the service

Walmley House is a residential care home providing personal care for up to six people with a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder, a physical disability or a sensory impairment. At the time of inspection four people were living in the home with two vacancies.

Walmley House accommodates up to six people in two adapted buildings. Five rooms are in the main building with a self-contained annex on the site. There is a dedicated staff office located in the main building. There are usually five staff on day shifts including a senior carer as well as the registered manager. Nights are covered by four staff with managers available ‘on-call’ as required.

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

People felt safe and staff had good knowledge of safeguarding processes. Staff had generally been recruited safely, however one staff file lacked clarity around a period of unemployment.

There was a system in place to monitor staff contact with people in the form of daily logs. These helped shift change staff to know about any issues that may not have been verbally handed over such as any concerns or activities completed/to complete. Care plans and risk assessments identified people's support needs and staff had a good understanding of the support people needed.

We saw evidence that some auditing of service provision was taking place. However, the auditing was not robust, with inconsistencies between audits and issues found by inspectors.

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.

People were treated with kindness and compassion. People felt well supported. People were listened to and could express their views. People's privacy and dignity was maintained.

People's and their relatives, as well as professionals working with people in the service, were involved in the review process. People's personal preferences were identified in their care plans. People were involved in decisions about their care.

People received person centred care. People, relatives and staff expressed confidence in the registered manager. People, relatives and staff were given the opportunity to provide feedback.

People, staff and relatives knew how to complain. The nominated individual understood their responsibilities under the duty of candour.

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.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support: Model of care and setting maximises people’s choice, control and independence

Right care: Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human rights

Right culture: Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people

using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives

From 11 November 2021 registered persons must make sure all care home workers and other professionals visiting the service are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they have an exemption or there is an emergency. We checked to make sure the service was meeting this requirement. We found the service had effective measures in place to make sure this requirement was being met.

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.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

This service was registered with us on 15 October 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection as the service has not been inspected since registration.

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.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.