Talbot House

Talbot House is a residential care home providing support to up to seven people. The service provides support to people with eating disorders. The service is one of a few specialist care homes supporting people with these conditions across the county. At the time of our inspection there were four people using the service.

The care home accommodates people across three floors in one building. People have their own bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. There are shared communal spaces such as a lounge, kitchen, dining area and garden.

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

Due to the specialist nature of the service provided, during the inspection, we regularly consulted with a number of professional experts in the field of eating disorders and mental health to help guide our judgements. The service had good care outcomes for people but there was a lack of clear and consistent systems to ensure the registered manager had good oversight of the service. This had resulted in inconsistent records, not all risks to people being identified, multiple medicine errors and a shortfall in staff understanding of some of the needs of people being supported. Professional experts in eating disorders agreed this could compromise the safety and wellbeing of the people being supported.

The provider was not registered to support people with learning disabilities or autistic people. However, they were supporting people with eating disorders who were autistic. 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. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

People were supported by staff who had received training in eating disorders, treated them kindly and made them feel safe and less worried. The service was clean and well maintained. Regular staff team supported people and there was no need for use of agency staff.

Where people had given consent to do so, their relatives were involved in their care and no decisions about care were made without the person being at the centre of discussions before plans were agreed.

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.

People were supported to access all relevant health professionals in order to support their recovery and ensure their health and wellbeing were being appropriately monitored.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 14 July 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was planned based on the date the service was first registered with the CQC. 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.

Enforcement and Recommendations

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 will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to medicines, risk management, personalised care, staff training and support and systems to measure quality at this inspection.

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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.