Housing 21 - Winton Court

Updated 1 May 2020

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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and one Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

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

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 12 February 2020 and ended on 18 February 2020. We visited the office location on 12 February 2020.

What we did before the 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 also reviewed the information we held about the service. This included any statutory notifications received. Statutory notifications are specific pieces of information about events, which the provider is required to send to us by law.

We sought feedback from the local authority contracts monitoring and safeguarding adults' teams and reviewed the information they provided. We also contacted the local Healthwatch for their feedback. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people who used the service and eight relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff, including the registered manager, and one visiting healthcare professional.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people's care records and medicine records. We looked at four 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 1 May 2020

About the service

Housing 21 – Winton Court is an extra care housing setting where staff provide personal care and support to people living in their own flats within one large adapted building. Not everyone living at Winton Court 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. At the time of inspection 41 people were receiving personal care.

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

People and their relatives spoke very highly of staff and the care they provided. People praised staff and told us about the positive effect they had on their lives. One person said, “The best thing about living here is having my own front door and independence but also having great support from the staff. They are absolutely wonderful and there are people to socialise with, but I can come home to my own place when I wish to."

Staff knew people extremely well and provided support in line with best practice and national guidance. The registered manager and staff placed people at the heart of all tasks and worked together to make sure everyone’s needs were met.

Medicines continued to be managed safely and people felt safe with the care provided. Risks people may face had been fully identified and steps put in place to keep people as safe as possible. People (where required) were supported to eat a balanced diet.

Care plans were detailed and included involvement from other health care professionals. Staff regularly reviewed people’s needs and worked with them to create personalised care packages. Staff provided people with choices about their care and involved relatives with this.

Staff recruitment was safe. Staff received regular training, supervisions and team meetings. There were enough staff to safely support people. Staff had their competencies checked regularly and were provided with an induction when they joined the service.

People were encouraged to remain independent within their own homes. People were supported to access the local community and staff provided social interaction to remove the risk of isolation. The service had recently created a reminiscence room for people to access to help start meaningful conversations about times gone by.

Staff encouraged and supported people to have maximum choice and control of their lives, including supporting people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The registered manager and office staff were working on continuously improving the service provided. There were quality assurance systems in place to monitor the quality of care provided to people. The registered manager used feedback from staff, people and visitors to look for ways to improve the service.

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 5 August 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.