Foxglove Care Limited

About the service

Foxglove Care Limited, is a small residential care home and is close to local shops and amenities. The service is registered to provide support to adults who may be living with a learning disability or autism spectrum disorder. At the time of our inspection the service was providing personal care to 4 people. One person was a permanent resident and 3 people were receiving respite care. The service can support up to 4 people.

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

Right Support:

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 were supported by staff to pursue their interests. People were able to personalise their rooms and staff enable people to access specialist health and social care support in the community. Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life.

Right Care:

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. 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. People could communicate with staff and understood information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs. People’s care, treatment and support plans reflected their range of needs, and this promoted their well-being and enjoyment of life.

Right Culture:

Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality of life of their choosing. Staff placed people’s wishes at the heart of everything they did, and ensured the risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect, and inclusivity. Relatives gave positive feedback about staff and told us they were happy with the service Foxglove Care provided.

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 (published 6 October 2017).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the environment of the building. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. The provider had taken action to mitigate the risks and was already compliant in areas we had previously identified. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Foxglove Care Limited - 96-98 Church Street, on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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

At this inspection the service remained ‘Good’.

Foxglove Care Limited at 96-98 Church Street, Sutton is a typical farm house style building in a residential area to the north of Kingston-Upon-Hull and is owned by Foxglove Care Limited. It is registered to provide accommodation for up to three people who may have a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder. It has three bedrooms, a lounge, a dining area and a kitchen. The service is located close to local shops and amenities and there is easy access to public transport. At the time of this inspection there were three people using the service.

The provider is required to have a registered manager in post. On the day of the inspection there was a registered manager. However, they had been absent for a period of time and so the service was being managed by an acting manager, but this was soon to be resolved. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 were protected from the risk of harm because there were systems in place, staff were trained in and understood their responsibilities for managing safeguarding concerns. Risks were reduced so that people avoided harm.

The premises were safely maintained. Staffing numbers were sufficient to meet people’s needs. Safe recruitment systems ensured staff were suitable to support people. The management of medicines was safe.

Staff were qualified and competent. They were regularly supervised and their personal performance was checked at an annual appraisal. Communication was effective.

People’s mental capacity was appropriately assessed and their rights were protected. 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 supported this practice.

People were supported with nutrition and hydration to maintain their health and wellbeing. The premises were suitably designed and furnished for providing care and support to people with a learning disability.

People were compassionately cared for by kind staff that knew about people’s needs and preferences. Relatives were fully involved in their family member's care and people were asked for their consent before staff undertook support tasks. People’s wellbeing, privacy, dignity and independence were respected.

Person-centred care plans reflected people’s needs and were regularly reviewed. Pastimes and activities were encouraged and people developed their living skills with support from staff. People had very good family connections and support networks. An effective complaint system was used and complaints were investigated without bias. People and their friends and relatives were encouraged to maintain relationships of their choosing.

The service was well-led and people had the benefit of a friendly culture and a positive management style. Systems were in place for checking the quality of the service. People made their views known through their own methods of communication. People’s privacy and confidentiality were maintained as records were held securely in the premises.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We were told that there was a choice of meals for people to choose from at each meal time. The manager told us, 'People can choose their own food to eat and when they would like to eat it. However, we do have to consider people that are on a healthy balanced diet such as a high fibre diet.'

We saw records of when a person's medication was adjusted to support their well-being and records showed that staff had consulted with a GP and were advised accordingly. Staff had recorded supporting information from the GP in the format of a diary entry which ensured people were supported to take the correct amounts as prescribed.

During our visit we observed a staff induction session taking place. There were seven new starters and the manager explained that all new staff would be expected to complete a full five day programme. This ensured that all new staff received a consistent approach to induction that followed the common inductions standards skills for care.

We looked at an example of a recent complaint that had been expressed by a family member. The service had responded as appropriate and were awaiting a final response which ensured the complaint was dealt with in a timely manner.

People's likes and dislikes were recorded and respected, with people being supported to make decisions in their lives. Records reflected that people had good access to a range of health care professionals. People were supported by staff who had been recruited through a formal process that included a review by a relative of the person who used the service to ensure that they were suitable for the role.

The staff had a detailed training plan that indicated the essential training required to fulfil their role in an efficient and effective manner. Members of staff we talked with commented; "We pretty much are doing what we are employed to do." and, "I have never worked for an organisation that is more organised than this one."