About the service Desmond House Limited is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 18 people. The service provides support to people with mental health needs, learning disabilities and autism. At the time of our inspection 16 people with mental health needs were using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.
Right care
The provider had made improvements since the last inspection. Infection, prevention, and control was well managed. Staff were trained and understood their responsibilities for maintaining high standards of cleanliness. Staff managed medicines consistently and safely. Staff were competent and trained in the administration of medication. Effective safeguarding systems were in place. Safeguarding concerns were managed consistently and promptly. All staff had an awareness and understanding of abuse and felt comfortable with raising concerns about their own or other people’s safety.
Right Support
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. There was enough competent staff on duty to care for people safely. People were supported to remain safe. Risk assessments were person centred and creative in relation to people’s safety. Staff were aware of people’s risks and how to manage them. Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns and report accidents and incidents. Lessons were learned and communicated to staff.
Right Culture
The service had a positive culture that was person centred and empowering. Interactions between staff and people was personalised and relaxed. The provider had clear governance systems in place that identified and managed risk through audits and action plans. These were used to monitor the services performance and drive improvements.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 4 February 2020). At our last inspection we recommended the provider made improvements in infection, prevention and control and quality monitoring. At this inspection we found the provider had made improvements in these areas.
Why we inspected
We carried out an unannounced inspection of this service on 18 December 2019 and the 09 January 2020. We undertook this focused inspection to confirm the improvements had been made. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe and well-led which contain those improvements.
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.
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 based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Desmond House Limited 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.