16 November 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
About the service
Woodham Lodge is a residential care home providing support to 6 people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 6 people. The service comprises of one purpose-built bungalow.
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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found.
Right Support
Care plans and monitoring records were not always in place for people to support them with their physical health needs.
The service didn't support people to have the maximum possible choice, control to be independent over their own lives. Aspects of peoples lives such as sharing a bedroom were not recorded or discussed as part of a decision-making process.
We have made a recommendation regarding recording decision making.
People were encouraged to set targets and achieve goals in some areas of life for example, planning a holiday and building relationships and contact with family members. However, this wasn’t consistent.
The service didn't always support people in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished, and well-maintained environment. Due to a kitchen refurbishment people were exposed to unplanned risks as well as infection prevention and control issues. Regular fire drills were recorded as taking place however, there were some issues with people’s personal evacuation plans as the kitchen refurbishment disruptions hadn’t accounted for these risks.
Medicines were managed and administered safely. However, cleanliness of storage needed to be improved. Records and systems to monitor medicines were in place. Staffs’ competencies to administer medicines was checked. People were supported with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcome.
Right care
The service acted to protect people from poor care. Staff knew how to report any concerns to the appropriate places. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse.
The service had enough staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe. However, some staff training was not up to date or completed.
We have made a recommendation about staff training.
People were supported by person centred practices; however, some support plans were more personalised than others and this wasn’t consistent. People were encouraged to take positive risks. Risk assessments were in place for most people. However, there were some gaps.
We have made a recommendation about care plans.
Right culture
People were supported to lead inclusive and empowered lives and make choices with the support of advocates where needed. However, some choices were not documented appropriately. The quality assurance processes in place were not always effective in identifying and addressing shortfalls in a timely manner.
Safe recruitment processes were followed. People and those important to them, were involved in planning their support. The service enabled people where appropriate to work with staff to develop the service. Staff felt supported by the manager.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at the last inspection and update
The last rating for the service was good, published on 1 November 2017.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and due to the length of time since the previous inspection. 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 changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Woodham Lodge on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Enforcement
We have identified breaches in relation to assessing and managing risks, premises, records, infection control, safe care and treatment, and manager oversight at this inspection.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.