25 January 2022
During a routine inspection
About the service
Kingsdown House provides accommodation and personal care for up to nine people aged between 18 and 65 years, who have a learning disability and autism. At the time of our inspection, there were nine people living at the service. The service was a large home, bigger than most domestic style properties. This is larger than current best practice guidance. However, the negative impact of the size of the service on people was mitigated by the building design fitting into the residential area and the other large domestic homes of a similar size nearby.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Right Support
Although staff knew people well and we saw good interaction between them, there were shortfalls in the running of the service. This meant people could not be assured they would always receive the right support which would help them to reach the best possible outcomes. Medicines were stored and managed safely within the service, however there were some issues with the prescribing of medicines which resulted in one person receiving an out of date medicine on multiple occasions.
Right Care
Staff were caring, knew people well, and were able to describe how they supported people to maintain their independence. We saw this in practice. However, the provider’s processes to learn lessons and continuously improve did not ensure that people would always receive the right care.
Right Culture
People told us they were happy living at Kingsdown House, and we saw from our time inspecting that people appeared happy and content. However, the provider did not promote a culture of person-centred support that focused on clear outcomes and putting people first. There were maintenance and furniture replacement concerns that had not been addressed in a timely manner.
There were insufficient staff, so people did not always get the support they needed, and staff told us they were tired. A process was not in place to monitor incidents and check for trends so improvements could be made to benefit people.
People were not always protected against risks associated with their care and support. The provider did not ensure there was robust auditing to review and improve the quality of care.
People received the right support to follow a healthy diet and to choose their meals and when they ate. Staff supported people to access the health care they needed to maintain and improve their health and well-being.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we inspected
This is the first inspection for this newly registered service. We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 16 November 2018.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.