Hembrigg Park

Heathcotes (Hembrigg Park) is a specialist service supporting females with personality disorders to become more independent and learn new skills over a 12-month period. At the time of inspection there was five people living at Hembrigg Park.

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

People told us they felt safe and that staff were kind. People were encouraged and supported to maintain relationships and to access the community to prevent social isolation.

We observed staff wearing appropriate PPE at the service and adhering to the government guidelines around this.

Staff were recruited safely; all checks were completed to ensure they were safe to work with vulnerable people and there were enough staff to support people. Medicines were managed and administered safely.

The registered manager and staff had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities and staff understood people’s needs. Quality assurance processes were in place. Regular audits and feedback were reviewed to ensure good standards were maintained, and where improvements were required, these were actioned. The management were aware the service needed renovation and plans were in place to complete this.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

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 (5 October 2017)

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has stayed the same. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

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.

Heathcotes (Hembrigg Park) is a specialist service supporting females with personality disorders to become more independent and learn new skills over a 12 month period.

The home had a registered manager. 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. In the report we refer to the home manager, the registered manager and the regional manager who were separate managers.

We saw that some of the communal internal and external areas in the home looked clean and were repaired when required. We noted the home manager was in the process of implementing improvements needed in the home.

We found that the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Deprivation of Liberty (DoLS) 2009 legislation had been adhered to in the home. The manager knew the people at the home who lacked capacity. We found however that the appropriate Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS) applications had been submitted to the Local Authority in relation to people's care.

The people living in the home were able to express themselves and were able to choose the way they spent their day. They were taken to activities outside the home and encouraged to keep family connections by visiting relatives where possible.

People had access to sufficient quantities of nutritious food and drink throughout the day and were given suitable menu choices at each mealtime, these options had been chosen by the people who lived at Heathcotes Hembrigg Park.

We found that staff were well trained and supported. They were able to demonstrate skill and competency in their knowledge about personality disorder and the support people required. The people who lived at the home were clearly happy with the support that staff gave them and there was a good rapport between them.

We checked the medication cabinet which was stored in a locked room. We saw that medication was given as directed and stored appropriately. We talked with staff who were able to demonstrate their knowledge of safeguarding and were able to tell us how to report abuse.

Each of the people's bedrooms had been personalised by the people who lived in them. People who were able were able to lock their bedroom doors, choose who entered their rooms and go in and out of the front door freely. However they were encouraged to plan their time and let staff know their whereabouts .

Care records, risk assessments, staff records and other documents relating to the running of the home, were well-kept and up-to-date. Each person living at the home had a personalised care plan and risk assessment.

We found that recruitment practices were in place which included the completion of pre-employment checks prior to a new member of staff working at the service. Staff received regular training and supervision to enable them to work safely and effectively.