Ranworth House

Updated 13 March 2019

The inspection: We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type: Ranworth House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for young people living with a learning disability or autism. 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 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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is a small home and staff and people were often out. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did: Before the inspection we used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. (PIR) This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We looked at information we held about the service including notifications they had made to us about important events. We also reviewed all other information sent to us from other stakeholders for example the local authority and members of the public.

During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, compliance director, four members of staff, four relatives and one person who lived at the home. We completed observations in communal areas, due to the nature of people's needs, we were not able to ask everyone direct questions, but we did observe people as they engaged with their day-to-day tasks and activities. 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.

We pathway tracked the care of four people. Pathway tracking is where we check that the care detailed in individual plans matches the experience of the person receiving care. We reviewed records including; accident and incident logs, quality assurance records, compliments and complaints, policies and procedures and two staff recruitment records. We also observed people’s medicines being administered.

After the inspection we spoke with two healthcare professionals to gain their feedback of the home. We asked the registered manager to send us additional information relating to minutes from staff meetings. They provided this within the requested timeframe.

Updated 13 March 2019

About the service: Ranworth House is a residential care home. The home is registered for up to nine people living with a learning disability, complex needs and autism. There were nine people living at the home at the time of inspection, both young men and women. People had access to two communal lounges, a dining area, kitchen and sensory room. People had their own personalised rooms with en-suites.

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

People’s experience of using this service: The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support in the following ways; promotion of choice and control, independence and inclusion. People’s support focussed on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

People living at the home benefited from outstanding care and support in a safe environment. There was a truly person-centred approach to the support people received. Staff had excellent knowledge and skills in supporting young people with a learning disability and saw people as individuals. Staff ensured people received a safe service where they were supported to take positive risks to develop their skills and broaden their horizons.

Relatives and healthcare professionals consistently told us people were treated with exceptional kindness, compassion and respect. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on how staff were supportive and went the extra mile to get care and support just right for people. A relative told us, “staff are extremely kind, when I pick him up he and the others are always happy, staff really know his needs well.”

People were given choice and control over their lives which promoted their independence. A relative told us, “They do so many things to support people, like I have never seen before. There are no barriers for my daughter, she does all the things she likes.” Each person was respected as an individual, with their own social and cultural diversity, values and beliefs. Staff were particularly good at noticing very subtle changes to people’s health and mood and acted quickly to ensure their health needs were met.

People had access to a variety of stimulating activities tailored to their personal interests. Staff recognised the importance of people leading their activities to get the most from opportunities. Staff took positive risks, and thought creatively, to ensure people could do what they wanted to and put strategies in place to overcome any barriers to accessing activities and new opportunities.

Staff were motivated by, and proud of, the service. One staff member said, " I am very proud of how the service users have developed and how we have bought out the best in them by really listening and understanding their needs.” Staff were, without exception, positive about all aspects of the service. There was a particularly strong emphasis on continuous improvement with staff gaining additional qualifications and knowledge to better support good outcomes for people. The leadership of the home was exceptional and the registered manager was focused on delivering high quality person centred care and continuously driving improvements at the home to broaden people’s life experiences.

Further information is in the full report.

Rating at last inspection: Outstanding (The last report was published on 2 July 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. The rating for the home remains Outstanding and the key question, Well-Led has improved to Outstanding.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the intelligence we receive about this home and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Outstanding.