22 July 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Treehaven Bungalows is a care home providing personal care and support to people with a learning disability and /or autistic people. The service can support up to 11 people. At the time of inspection there were 10 people living in the home. Treehaven Bungalows is two conjoined bungalows with a majority of the accommodation downstairs, and each bungalow has an upstairs flat.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Safeguarding incidents were not always reported to the relevant authorities, and systems to monitor accidents and incidents was poor and lacked comprehensive oversight. Health and safety audits failed to address concerns found within the environment.
There was a lack of effective governance systems in place to monitor and assess the quality of service being delivered. The provider did not maintain oversight of how the service was being delivered. Relatives had not been asked to provide feedback about how they thought the service had been run for a number of years.
Risks in relation to people’s health and wellbeing had been identified and planned for and people were cared for by staff who understood their care needs well. There were safe systems in place around the administration and management of medicines, and staff had received training in relation to this.
People’s relatives and staff spoke positively about how the service was run by the registered manager. People’s relatives were complementary about how their family members were cared for and how they were supported to achieve good outcomes. Staff felt supported in their roles and felt able to put forward ideas about how to improve 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.
Based on our review of the key questions of safe and well-led, the service showed how they were meeting some of the principles of Right support, right care, right culture. Based on our findings, the provider did not take adequate steps to report and investigate safeguarding concerns. Our observations and conversations with people’s relatives and staff assured us care was delivered in a person-centred way.
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 25 March 2019).
Why we inspected
This was a focused inspection to check on a specific concern we had about the provider’s governance systems and oversight of the service.
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.
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.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Treehaven Bungalows on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
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 discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches in relation to safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment and good governance 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 for 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.