Archived: Hartley Road

Updated 7 July 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by two inspectors.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ 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 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

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection and to give people who lived in the service time to prepare for visitors.

What we did before 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. We sought feedback from the local authority and local safeguarding team. We used the information we had collected through our recent monitoring activity. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We communicated with two people who used the service. One person used speech to communicate and the other expressed themselves with their body language and some signs. We sought feedback from three relatives about their experience of the care provided.

We spoke with four members of staff including the Head of Regional Operations, the registered manager, the deputy manager and a support worker.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and two people’s medication records. We looked at two 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.

Updated 7 July 2022

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Hartley Road is a supported living service. Personal care is provided to three people living in a shared house.

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

Right Support

People were not consistently supported to ensure they had fulfilling and meaningful lives. People’s goals were not clearly defined and people were not always offered choices in a way that was meaningful to them. Staff had identified where the support they provided was restrictive for people's safety, but had not obtained the appropriate authorisations for these practices. While the setting is registered as a supported living service, some areas of the home, particularly the dining room, looked and felt like staff areas which is not appropriate in people’s homes. People were supported by staff who knew them well and who cared about them.

Right Care

Staff knew people well and understood how they communicated their wants and needs despite this being poorly captured in care records. People were supported to access the healthcare services they needed to stay well. Staff worked closely with people’s families to ensure people received the care they needed. However, people’s care plans lacked details about people’s preferences, goals and aspirations. People were not consistently supported with activities they enjoyed.

We have made a recommendation about how people are supported to follow a balanced diet.

Right culture

People’s families were closely involved in their support and people were supported to maintain relationships with people who were important to them. Staff had not always received the training they needed to perform their roles. The provider had identified there was more work to do to seek and act on people and their families’ feedback.

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

Rating and update

This service registered with us on 26 April 2021 and this is their first inspection.

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support right care right culture. We had undertaken a monitoring activity and this indicated the service might not always have been applying these principles.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection.

We have identified breaches of regulations in relation to medicines management, staff training, consent and safeguarding related to restrictive practice.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

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.