Housing 21 - Hillside Court

Updated 5 December 2019

The inspection

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because people are often out, and we wanted to be sure there would be people available to speak with us.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection-

We met with three people who received care from the service. This was to find out about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including the registered manager, assistant care manager and care staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 5 December 2019

About the service

Housing and Care 21- Hillside Court is an extra care housing scheme for older people, comprising of individual flats in one large building. The scheme had some communal areas, and an onsite restaurant. People who lived at the service had a separate care and tenancy agreement. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 25 people with personal care. Other people required support with social, domestic visits or welfare calls only.

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

People felt safe and protected from the risk of harm. People told us they received their medicines as prescribed. Staff completed medication training and their competency was checked. Staff described signs they would look for to identify abuse and records showed appropriate action was taken to safeguard people. There were sufficient numbers of staff who were safely recruited. They received a programme of support through training, supervision and appraisal.

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 told us staff responded to their needs effectively and their preferences were known and respected by staff.

People were treated with dignity and respect. Staff were knowledgeable in the actions to take to maintain the privacy and dignity of people and described the actions they took to uphold this especially during personal care.

People's needs were assessed, and people received care which met their needs. People were satisfied with the quality of care they received. People knew how to complain, and any concerns raised were followed up to ensure a suitable outcome was reached for the person using the service. People were confident they could communicate how they felt to staff, who were approachable and listened to what they had to say.

Quality monitoring systems were in place, and the provider completed various audits to assist them in monitoring and helping them to identify how to improve people's experiences.

Rating at last inspection: The last rating for this service was good (published April 2017).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

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