Background to this inspection
Updated
16 January 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 2 inspectors, a specialist adviser in medicines (SpA) and 2 Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type
The Reeds 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. The Reeds 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 unannounced. Inspection activity started on 4 December 2023 and ended on 18 December 2023. We visited the location’s service on 4 December 2023 and again on10 December 2023 for an out of hours visit as part of CQC's enhanced methodology for inspecting services who support autistic people and/or people with a learning disability.
What we did before the inspection
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 sought feedback from professionals who work with the service and Healthwatch England. 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 this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We are improving how we hear people’s experience and views on services, when people have limited verbal communication. We have trained some CQC team members to use a symbol-based communication tool. We checked this was a suitable communication method, and people were happy to use it with us. We did this by reading their care and communication plans and speaking to staff and the person themselves. In this report, we used this communication tool with 1 person to tell us their experience of the care.
We also used a combination of speaking with people and observing their responses, gestures and body language. We communicated in this way with 4 people. We spoke with 6 people’s relatives and 4 professionals who work with the service. We spoke with 8 members of staff including the registered manager and nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.
We reviewed care records of 4 people including medicines records. We looked at recruitment records for 2 staff and a variety of quality assurance records such as audits as well as reviewing policies and procedures.
Updated
16 January 2024
About the service
The Reeds is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 8 people. The service provides support to autistic people and people with a learning disability. At the time of our inspection there were 8 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 assessment 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 with their medicines in a safe way. The digital records system did not always show accuracy of medicine amounts in stock, but the provider was aware and making changes.
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.
Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. The service worked with people to plan for when they experienced periods of distress so their freedoms were restricted in the least restrictive way and only if there was no alternative.
The service gave people care and support in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment met their sensory and physical needs.
Right Care
Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. 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’s care, treatment and support plans reflected their range of needs, and this promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life.
Staff and people cooperated to assess risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.
Right Culture
Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their relatives and other professionals as appropriate. We found on 1 occasion, this was not completed in a timely way which risked a delay in improving staff practice and learning.
Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity. The needs and safety of people formed the basis of the culture at the service. Staff understood their role in making sure people were always put first.
People received good quality care, support and treatment because trained staff and specialists could meet their needs and wishes.
Recommendations
We have made a recommendation relating to reviewing information to improve the service.
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 Outstanding (published 21 March 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and the length of time since the last inspection. 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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Reeds 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.