Archived: The Red House

Updated 5 March 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This was an unannounced inspection which was completed on 14 January 2016. The inspection was completed by two inspectors. The previous inspection was completed in August 2013 there were no breaches of regulation.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they planned to make.

We reviewed the information included in the PIR along with information we held about the home. This included notifications, which is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

We contacted five health and social care professionals to obtain their views on the service and how it was being managed. This included professionals from the local community learning disability team, local authority and the GP practice.

During the inspection we looked at three people’s records and those relating to the running of the home. This included staffing rotas, policies and procedures, quality checks that had been completed, supervision and training information for staff. We spoke with four members of staff and the manager of the service. We spent time observing and speaking with people living at The Red House. Following the inspection, we contacted three relatives by telephone about their experience of the care and support people received at The Red House.

Updated 5 March 2016

The inspection took place on 14 January 2016. This was an unannounced inspection. The service was last inspected in August 2013. There were no breaches of regulations.

The Red House is a care home without nursing for up to seven people with learning disabilities. People who use the service may have additional needs and present behaviours which can be perceived as challenging. It is a detached property in a residential area with local amenities nearby. There were six people using the service at the time of the inspection.

There was a new manager working in The Red House. They told us they had been working for the company for the last four months. An application has been received in respect of the new manager being registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.’

People had access to other health professionals. However, the records of these appointments did not capture the outcome or any follow up. This meant people could not be assured their health needs were being met and the advice of health care professionals followed.

There were suitable arrangements in place for the safe storage, receipt and administration of people’s medicines.

People and their families were provided with opportunities to express their needs, wishes and preferences regarding how they lived their daily lives. This included meetings with staff members and other health and social care professionals.

People were supported to access and attend a range of activities. People were supported by the staff to use the local community facilities and had been supported to develop skills which promoted their independence.

People’s needs were regularly assessed and care plans provided guidance to staff on how people were to be supported. The planning of people’s care, treatment and support was personalised to reflect people’s preferences and personalities.

The staff at the home had a clear knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLs). These safeguards aim to protect people from being inappropriately deprived of their liberty. These safeguards can only be used when a person lacks the mental capacity to make certain decisions and there is no other way of supporting the person safely.

Where people lacked capacity, best interests meetings had taken place involving other professionals ensuring decisions were made in peoples’ best interests.

The staff recruitment process was robust to ensure the staff employed would have the skills to support people. Staff were knowledgeable about people. They had received suitable training to support people safely enabling them to respond to their care and support needs.

The service maintained daily records of how peoples support needs were met. Staff respected people’s privacy and we saw staff working with people in a kind and compassionate way responding to their needs.

There was a complaints procedure for people, families and friends to use and compliments could also be recorded. We saw that the service took time to work with and understand people’s individual way of communicating so that the service staff could respond appropriately to the person.

The provider had quality monitoring systems in place which were used to bring about improvements to the service.

We found a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.