Arch Hill Court

Updated 19 September 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.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted one inspector and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.

This service also provides a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 5 August 2019 and ended on 7 August 2019. We visited the office location on 5 August 2019.

What we did before inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people using the service and seven relatives to ask about their experience of care. We spoke with a provider representative, the registered manager, 14 staff members, including care supervisors and care staff.

We looked at four people's care records, multiple medication records and information relating to the quality and management of the service. This included survey results for people who received care, minutes of tenant focus groups, systems for managing any complaints, accidents or incidents, minutes of staff meetings and staff training records.

Updated 19 September 2019

About the service

Arch Hill Court is a service providing personal care to people in their own homes. The extra care housing service supports people living independently in their own flats and who have access to a number of communal areas. In addition, Arch Hill Court cares for people living in the own homes in the community. People supported include younger and older people who may live with dementia, mental health needs, physical disabilities or sensory impairments. Ninety people were in receipt of care at the time of the inspection.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People had developed strong relationships with the staff caring for them. Relatives told us staff were considerate and their family members were supported by a consistent staff team who knew them well. Staff encouraged people to make their own decisions about their care, and people’s decisions were listened to. People’s rights to dignity, independence and privacy were recognised by staff.

Staff understood how to recognise abuse and were confident the registered manager would support people, if any concerns were identified. People were supported to receive their care at the time planned. Staff knew what risks people experienced and acted to reduce people’s risks. Systems were in place to take learning from any incidents.

People’s needs were assessed, and they were supported to have enough to eat and drink, and see other health professionals, so they would enjoy the best health possible. Staff knew how to care for people and felt supported to provide good care through comprehensive training and induction programmes. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People and their relatives were involved in planning people’s care, which reflected people’s wishes, and said their views were acted on. Staff supported people as their needs changed, so they continued to receive the care they wanted. People were supported to raise any concerns or complaints and systems were in place to take learning from these. Staff had received compliments regarding the quality of care provided at the end of people’s lives.

People, relatives and staff were positive about the way the service was managed and were encouraged to make suggestions for developing people’s care further. The registered manager and provider checked the safety and quality of the care, so they could be assured people’s needs were met. The registered manager understood their responsibilities to drive through improvements to people’s care, and development of the service was informed by best practice standards and work undertaken with other organisations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published 03 February 2017).

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

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