Carrington Park

Heathcotes Carrington Park is a residential care home providing accommodation to a maximum of eight people with learning disabilities and/or complex mental health needs. Carrington Park is a large house over two floors with a shared kitchen and different lounge areas to provide people with space and choice. At the time of the inspection there were eight people living at the service.

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.

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

Based on our review of safe and well-led the service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support

Staff supported people with their medicines in a way which promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcome. Medicines were managed safely.

People had a choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms. People's rooms were very personalised, and people were able to decorate their room to reflect their interests and hobbies.

Staff enabled people to access specialist health, dental care and social care support in the community and people were supported to play an active role in maintaining their own health and wellbeing.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe.

Right Care

People's care, treatment and support plans reflected their range of needs and this promoted their individuality, wellbeing and enjoyment of life.

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people's privacy and dignity.

Staff understood and responded to their individual needs.

Staff received training and support to provide care effectively. People were provided with meals and drinks to maintain their wellbeing. People were supported by health care professionals who worked in partnership with the service to maintain people's health and wellbeing.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

People could take part in activities of their choosing at home or in the wider community and pursue their own interests.

Right culture

People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff. The stable management and staff team supported people to receive consistent care from staff who knew them well. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care which was tailored to their needs.

Mental Capacity Act

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.

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.

During this inspection we carried out a separate thematic probe, which asked questions of the provider, people and their relatives, about the quality of oral health care support and access to dentists, for people living in the care home. This was to follow up on the findings and recommendations from our national report on oral healthcare in care homes that was published in 2019 called ‘Smiling Matters’. We will publish a follow up report to the 2019 'Smiling Matters' report, with up to date findings and recommendations about oral health, in due course.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 16 March 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to people’s care and support, behaviours of staff and the managers response to concerns. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

Follow up

After the inspection we continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We spoke to two family members about their experience of the care provided to their relative.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Heathcotes (Carrington Park) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

People’s experience of using this service:

The service met the characteristics of good in all areas.

People received safe care. There were enough staff to support people. Recruitment checks were completed to ensure staff were suitable to work with people in this environment. People were protected from harm and staff administered their medicines safely. Staff understood people’s risks and had management plans in place. Lessons were learnt when mistakes happened. Staff followed infection control practices to protect people.

The care that people received was effective. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff received training and support to provide care effectively. People were provided with meals and plentiful drinks to maintain their wellbeing. People were supported by health care professionals to sustain their health.

People enjoyed positive relationships with staff. Staff provided kind, considerate and compassionate care which recognised people’s right to privacy, upheld their dignity and promoted their independence.

People’s care was responsive to their needs. There was a positive approach to providing support which enabled people to fulfil their potential and celebrate their achievements. People were provided with opportunities to socialise and pursue their interests.

The registered manager was approachable and visible to both people and staff. There were arrangements in place to monitor the quality of the home and make improvements when necessary.

More information is in the full report

Rating at last inspection: Good: report published on 22 June 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection based on previous rating.

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

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

Heathcotes Carrington Park provides accommodation for up to eight people living with mental health needs and or a learning disability. Eight people were living at the service at the time of the inspection.

Heathcotes Carrington 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 place.

People told us staff supported them to remain safe. They told us that their possessions were safe and some people said they had no restrictions placed upon them.

Staff were aware of their role and responsibilities in protecting people from abuse and avoidable harm. They had attended appropriate adult safeguarding training and they had available the provider’s safeguarding policy and procedure.

People’s individual needs had been assessed and risk plans were in place where required to advise staff of the action required to reduce known risks from occurring. These were regularly monitored and reviewed. Risks associated to the environment and equipment had also been assessed and safety checks had been completed.

The provider ensured there were sufficient staff employed and deployed appropriately. Safe recruitment checks were in place that ensured as far as possible, people were cared for by suitable staff. People received their medicines as prescribed and these were managed correctly.

Staff received an appropriate induction when they commenced and ongoing training to keep their skills and knowledge up to date. They also received opportunities to review their work and development needs.

The registered manager understood their role and responsibility in ensuring the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards legislation was fully adhered to. Staff were knowledgeable about this legislation and how to protect people’s human rights. Staff involved people as fully as possible in discussions and decisions and gained consent before care and support was provided.

People received sufficient to eat and drink and were supported to maintain a healthy diet. Staff supported people to access both routine and specialist healthcare services. The service involved external health and social care professionals appropriately in meeting people’s individual needs.

People told us that staff were kind, caring and compassionate. Staff supported people to participate activities, interests and hobbies. Staff used effective communication and they understood people needs and what was important to them. People’s privacy, dignity and independence was respected and promoted.

Care records contained information to support staff to meet people’s individual needs. A complaints policy was in place and staff knew how to respond to complaints.

People, their relatives or representatives received opportunities to share their views about the service. Staff felt valued and supported and were positive about the leadership of the service. The provider had checks in place that monitored the quality and safety of the service. These included daily, weekly and monthly audits. In addition the provider had further systems in place that provided robust monitoring of the service.