Hightown Road

Updated 5 February 2025

We carried out this inspection from 4 February 2025 to 24 February 2025. The service is a residential care home service providing support to people with a learning disability and autistic people. There were 3 people living in the home at the time of our inspection. We inspected this service due to receiving information of concern relating to people’s care and medicines management. We inspected 17 quality statements across the safe, caring, responsive and well-led key questions and have combined the scores for these areas with scores from the last inspection to give the rating.

We found 2 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to premises and equipment, and governance. The level of cleanliness in the home was below the standard we would expect. Food was not always stored safely, meaning people were at risk of eating unsafe food. Governance systems and audits were not effective in addressing areas for improvement.

However, people were supported to have choice and control and could give feedback on their care. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications, and experience. Staff were trained to raise and respond to safeguarding concerns both internally and to external agencies. Medicines were stored, documented, and administered safely. People’s needs were assessed and reviewed. Staff ensured people’s care and support met individual needs and preferences. There was a system in place for responding to concerns or complaints. Staff were able to raise concerns and told us managers were approachable.

We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence, and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. We found people received care and support in accordance with the principles of this guidance.

Updated 5 February 2025

We spoke to some people and used observations to assess whether they received good care. A person told us, they liked living in the home and they got on with all the staff. We undertook an observation using Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). This meant we observed a person for 30 minutes, recording their mood, activities, and interactions with staff during this time. We observed several occasions where staff missed opportunities to interact with the person, even though they were vocalising for the majority of the time, and on occasions sounded frustrated and appearing to want a need met. We spoke to the manager about this, who told us, they had spoken to their staff members and had updated the person’s care plan to ensure staff were interacting with the person when needed and ensuring they were meaningfully engaged. During the assessment, we received positive feedback from relatives around medicines management, health related issues and communication. The relatives told us the transition process for their relative to move into the home had been a positive experience. They also told us, their relatives were supported to attend medical appointments, therefore relatives felt people were kept safe. One relative told us, “I am personally very happy with the care and attention my relative receives.”