Lester Hall Apartments

Updated 20 December 2022

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.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type Lester Hall Apartments is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Lester Hall Apartments is a care home with without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This service 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. 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.

At the time of the inspection a registered manager was in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 people who use the service about their experience of the care and support provided. We also observed staff engagement with people to further understand people’s experience. We spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager, the head of adult services, the quality compliance manager, 2 senior support workers, a support worker who was also the activity coordinator on day 1 of the inspection and an agency worker. We also spoke with 3 visiting health care professionals.

We looked at parts of 6 people’s care files along with a range of medicine administration records. We looked at other records relating to the management of the service, including 3 staff recruitment records, complaints, staff deployment, staff training, audits and communication and meeting documents.

Updated 20 December 2022

About the service

Lester Hall Apartments is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for people living with mental health needs, including those living with dementia, physical disability and a learning disability or Autism. Accommodation is in 1 adapted building over 3 floors with a passenger lift. The service is registered for up to 33 people and there were 14 people living in the service at the time of inspection.

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

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.

Since the last inspection the provider had made improvements and the service was now able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support; People received individualised care and support. Guidance and support for staff of how to support people with their routines, preferences and health conditions had improved. People received consistency and continuity from staff who knew them well and were competent and skilled. The use of agency staff had significantly reduced. Safe staff recruitment procedures were in place.

Right Care; People were supported to lead active and fulfilling lives. Improvements had been made to support people with interests, hobbies and activities important to them. Staff were kind, caring and treated people with dignity and respect.

Right Culture; There was a shared commitment to the culture and values of the service. There was a positive team approach and improved oversight and leadership. Feedback from people and staff about the improvements made was consistently positive. There were new and improved effective systems and processes in place to continually review, monitor and improve quality and safety.

Risks were continually assessed, monitored and reviewed. Staff were aware of how to protect people from known risks and worked closely with external health and social care professionals in how risks were managed.

Safeguarding, incident management and opportunities of learning to mitigate risks had improved. People received their medicines safely and when required.

Infection prevention and control practice was in place to minimise the risk and spread of infection. Staff had received required training.

The provider had improved the referral and assessment process. This was robust with senior management oversight, ensuring new admissions were planned for.

People’s communication needs had been assessed and planned for, and easy read information was available. People had access to the providers complaint policy.

The provider enabled people, relatives, staff and external professionals to share their experience of the service. Feedback was used to further develop and improve the service.

The staff worked well with external agencies and health and social care professionals, in supporting people with their ongoing care and support needs.

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 requires (published 3 August 2022).

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 4 and 5 July 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found in safe care and treatment, safeguarding, staffing, person centred care and governance. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Responsive and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Lester Hall Apartments on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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