Archived: 230a Mountnessing Road

Updated 16 July 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The unannounced inspection took place on 15 May 2019 and was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type:

230a Mountnessing Road is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. The registered manager was on had been absent for a couple of months, and the service was being run by the deputy manager, with support from two registered managers from the provider’s other services.

What we did:

As part of the inspection, we reviewed a range of information about the service. This included safeguarding alerts and statutory notifications, which related to the service. Statutory notifications include information about important events, which the provider is required to send us by law.

Providers are required to send us a Provider Information Return (PIR) in which they tell us about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. The registered manager had completed a PIR which helped to support our inspection.

We focused on speaking with people who lived at the service and observing how they were cared for. Where people at the service had complex needs, and were not able verbally to talk with us, or chose not to, we used observation to gather evidence of people's experiences of the service.

We spoke with a registered manager from another service, who was covering for the absent registered manager and the deputy manager, who are referred to in the report as the management team. We also met with the providers quality compliance manager.

We spoke with 4 care and support staff. We reviewed the care records of three people who used the service. We also looked at a range of documents relating to the management of the service, including staff files and a range of quality audits. We had contact with two health and social care professionals who were involved in the care of the people at the service. We also spoke with a family member for their views on the service.

After the inspection senior staff sent us additional information, as requested and we spoke with a representative from the provider known as the Nominated Individual to find out more about the management of the service.

Updated 16 July 2019

About the service:

230 Mountnessing Road is a nursing home for up to eight people with learning disabilities and complex health needs. It is a bungalow set in a residential area of Billericay, Essex.

People’s experience of using this service:

At our last inspection the service was rated good. Historically the service had been very settled, however the months leading up to our inspection had been affected by the absence of the registered manager. The provider had arranged good support from more experienced managers for the deputy manager as they were new in post. The provider had also used audits and quality checks during this period to improve the quality and safety of the care people received. Many of the staff had been at the service for a long time so the impact to people of the changes was minimal.

People at the service had complex needs and could not always communicate verbally. However, staff had the skills to communicate with them and to recognise any changes in their health and wellbeing. Risks to people’s safety were well managed. There were qualified nurses at the service who worked with staff and external professionals to support people to remain healthy. There was detailed guidance to staff about people’s needs.

Staff were very caring and compassionate and promoted a family-like atmosphere where people were treated with dignity. Staff arranged activities to support people to remain stimulated. The provider was working with staff to improve these activities and to develop a culture where people were encouraged to be more independent.

Staff offered people choice about day-to-day decisions. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service promoted this practice.

The size of service was only marginally larger than recommendations within current best practice guidance. This guidance promotes people living in a small domestic style property to enable them to have the opportunity of living a full life. Staff told us that in the past the service had a more institutionalised feel but that this had changed, and the property was now much homelier.

Rating at last inspection:

Good. The last report was published on 4 November 2016.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection to check that this service remained Good.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor this service to ensure people receive care which meets their needs.

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