Ash Tree House

Updated 9 February 2024

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.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of 1 inspector.

Service and service type

Ash Tree 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. Ash Tree 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

The inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We engaged with all 3 people who lived at the service and spent time observing and listening to interactions between people and staff. We spoke with the registered manager, regional manager, acting manager, deputy manager and a senior support worker.

We conducted a visual inspection of the building and looked at a wide variety of records. These included people’s care and medicine records, monitoring documentation, staff files and audits used to monitor the service.

Following the inspection site visit we contacted 2 relatives to ask their views on the service provided. We also spoke with a further 2 support workers.

Updated 9 February 2024

About the service

Ash Tree House is a residential care home providing accommodation to people who require personal care for up to 6 people. The service provides support to younger and older adults who have a learning disability and/or autistic people. At the time of our inspection there were 3 people using the service.

People’s experience of the service and what we found:

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.

Right Support

Staff supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence and they supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do. Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved positive health outcomes. People had a choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms. The service did not always provide people with care and support in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment. However, an extensive refurbishment plan was in place with work due to commence in January 2024. The registered manager took action to address immediate issues.

Right Care

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. 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 could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs. Risks to people were assessed. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Right Culture

There was a positive and open culture at the service where the registered manager led by example. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting them to live a quality life of their choosing. The service enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service. Staff valued and acted upon people’s views.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (report published 10 September 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and the time since the last inspection.

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Ash Tree House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation in relation to infection, prevention and control and maintaining a clean, safe environment.

Follow Up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.