Archived: Rufford Road

Rufford Road is a four bedroomed bungalow located in a residential area of Crossens, Southport. It provides 24-hour support to four men who have a profound learning disability and complex health care needs. The home is close to local shops and near to local transport links.

A registered manager was in post. 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. The registered manager was on leave at the time of our inspection.

We were unable to speak to the people living at the home, however we did observe the care and support for one person, and we spoke to the family member of another person, who told us they felt Rufford Road was a safe place for the person to live.

People received their medicines as prescribed and safe practices had been followed in the administration and recording of medicines.

External safety checks by contractors were taking place.

People had been referred to healthcare professionals when needed.

People told us there were enough suitably trained staff to meet their individual care needs. Staff were only appointed after a thorough recruitment process. Staff were available to support people to go on trips or visits within the local and wider community and attend medical appointments. People were also support to pursue hobbies and other personal interests.

The deputy manager and the staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and associated legislation and had taken appropriate steps to ensure people exercised choice where possible. Where people did not have capacity, this was documented appropriately and decisions were made in their best interest with the involvement of family members and relevant health care professionals where appropriate. This showed the provider understood and was adhering to the Mental Capacity Act 2005.This is legislation to protect and empower people who may not be able to make their own decisions.

The provider was meeting their requirements as set out in the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). DoLS is part of the Mental Capacity Act (2005).

We observed staff delivering support with kindness. They knew people well and were aware of their history, preferences and dislikes. People’s privacy and dignity were upheld. Staff monitored people’s health and welfare needs and acted on issues identified.

Some people were making use of advocacy services at the time of our inspection.

Care plans with regards to people’s preferred routines and personal preferences were well documented and plainly written to enable staff to gain a good understanding of the person they were supporting. Care plans contained a high level of person centred information. Person centred means the service was tailored around the needs of the person, and not the organisation.

We discussed complaints with the registered manager. There had been no complaints in the home in the last 12 months.

Quality assurance procedures were robust and identified when actions needed to be implemented to drive improvements. We saw that quality assurance procedures were highly organised and processes had been implemented from another internal source to help support the service to continuously improve. We were shown these procedures by the deputy manager during our inspection.

Feedback had been gathered from people who used the service in the form of questionnaires, and telephone conversations with families.

The care records we looked at demonstrated the home had made the improvements required. Person-centred plans, health plans and guidelines about support were current and reflected people's needs. A process had been introduced to check each month that care records were up-to-date.

There was a calm atmosphere at the home. We observed people were relaxed and content. Staff engaged with people in a kind way and involved them in decisions related to their care needs. From our conversations with staff, it was clear they had a thorough understanding of each person's needs and the individual support each person needed.

As part of the inspection we spoke with families. They spoke highly about the care and support their relatives received and one family member said, 'The support is excellent. If I have any problems I speak to the manager. The staff tell me what is happening or if anything has changed.' Another family member told us, 'The staff are honest, friendly and dedicated. The support is good in terms of improving his quality of life.'

Care records were not being reviewed in a timely way and did not always reflect people's current needs.

Staff were knowledgeable about adult safeguarding and were aware of how to report a safeguarding concern.

Effective systems were in place to monitor the quality of the service. Staff were receiving on-going training, supervision and an annual appraisal.