18 October 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
St Anne's Community Services - Dewsbury 1 (known to staff, people who used the service and their relatives, as Oxford Road) is a care home. The home provides support and personal care for up to five adults with a learning disability. On both days of our inspection, there were five people living in the home.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.
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.
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. People were empowered have control of their daily living as staff gave them choices and where needed, supported them to make decisions. Staff knew people’s likes and preferences.
Right Care: The care provided by staff was person-centred and put people and their families at the centre of their care planning. The interactions between people and staff were entirely natural and gave the service a ‘family feel’. People were relaxed in each other’s company. Staff consistently knocked on people’s doors before entering their bedrooms, which respected their privacy and dignity. People’s protected rights were understood and met by the staff team who showed a strong insight into their care and support needs.
Right Culture: The management team developed a stable workforce which made for a positive culture. Staff felt supported through a programme of induction, training and regular supervision meetings. They felt able to discuss their own wellbeing as well as talking about the needs of people living in this home. Effective systems of governance meant the provider had oversight of the running of the home. People and their families provided positive feedback to us about the quality of care provided.
The management team responded appropriately to a misunderstanding regarding current infection control guidance. The home was found to be clean. People received their medicines as prescribed. We identified some recording issues which the management team responded to immediately. Staff received training in medicines management and were assessed as competent to administer.
There were sufficient numbers of safely recruited staff to care and support people. Risks to people were known and had been managed appropriately. People were supported to maintain a healthy and balanced diet and staff understood their dietary needs. Staff understood how to identify and respond to signs of ill health in people living at this service. Examples of staff working with a range of partners, including those specialising in healthcare, was seen throughout this inspection.
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 rated good (published 23 December 2017).
At our last inspection we recommended the provider followed good practice where people may lack mental capacity. At this inspection, we found this recording had improved as mental capacity assessments and best interests decisions were in place.
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.