Kendall House

Updated 16 February 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

Kendall House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Kendall House is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people who lived at the service about their experience of the care provided and spent time with them observing interactions with staff.

We spoke with 3 members of staff, the registered manager, and the deputy manager. We spoke with 2 relatives and contacted 3 health and social care professionals about their experience of the service. A further 2 staff contacted us by email to tell us about their experience of working at Kendall House.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people's care records, daily records and medication records. We looked at the records relating to Deprivation of Liberty for people that had this in place. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including training data, recruitment documentation, duty rotas and quality assurance records.

Updated 16 February 2023

Kendall House provides accommodation, personal care and support for up to 8 people. People who live at the home have a learning disability. There were 6 people living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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

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.

Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life. People were supported by staff to achieve their aspirations and goals. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Right Care:

People were supported by staff that knew them well and who were committed to providing person centred care. People were involved in making decisions on how they wanted to spend their time. It was an active household with people enjoying each other’s company. It was evident the staff and people had built positive relationships. Staff were caring and passionate about the service and the people they supported. People told us they liked living in Kendall House and were happy with the staff that supported them.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

People's support plans reflected their individual needs. People were supported to lead active lifestyles of their choosing. People’s wellbeing was promoted, and their rights protected.

Right Culture:

People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the values, attitudes and behaviours of the provider, management and staff. Staff demonstrated their commitment to the values of the service that put people at the centre of the care and support provided. Staff felt supported and worked as team to ensure people’s care and support needs were met.

Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. People and those important to them, including advocates, were involved in planning their care. There was an open and inclusive culture where people and staff were valued, and their views sought to help drive improvements.

There were robust quality assurance processes in place that drove improvement.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 4 September 2018). The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding. We inspected the domains of safe and well led.

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 remained good.

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.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Kendall House 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.