17 July 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
About the service
Grasmere Avenue is a ‘care home’ that provides care and support for up to 6 people. All the people who live at Grasmere Avenue have a learning disability or were autistic people. There were 6 people living there at the time of the inspection.
CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture.
Right Support
Staff supported people, to be given maximum choices, control, and independence. Personalised communication strategies were used to support people to understand and make their choices and creative ways found to promote learning and for people to develop their existing and new skills. Staff were focused on people's strengths to enable them to lead fulfilling and meaningful lives.
People were recognised as individuals and care was planned according to their personalities and interests. Staff supported people, to pursue their interests and achieve goals and aspirations by overcoming barriers and finding ways to ensure people participated in a wide range of age appropriate social activities. People were supported to be valued members of the local community. The interactive and stimulating environment provided was adapted to meet their individual needs and people benefitted from this. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.
People were supported with their medicines in a manner that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcome for them. They received a service that was safe for them to use, live and staff to work in. The provider and registered manager regularly reviewed the quality of the service, and changes were made to improve people’s care and support when required. This was in a way that best suited people. There were well-established working partnerships within the home that promoted people’s participation, independence, and reduced their danger of social isolation.
Right Care
People were given kind, compassionate care, and staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to people’s individual needs and knew how to protect them from poor care and abuse. The service worked well in tandem with other agencies and staff were trained in how to recognise and report abuse and applied this, as necessary. People were able to communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently, understood their individual communication needs and had the necessary skills to understand them. People could take part in activities, pursue interests that were tailored to them, were given opportunities to try new activities that enhanced and enriched their lives, and were supported to take positive risks.
Staff were appropriately recruited, and in sufficient numbers to support people to live safely, whilst enjoying their lives. Risks to people using the service and staff were assessed, monitored, and reviewed. Complaints, concerns, accidents, incidents, and safeguarding issues were appropriately reported, investigated, and recorded. Staff who were trained, safely administered people’s medicines.
Right culture
The home’s culture was open, positive, and honest with a leadership and management that was clearly identifiable and transparent. The provider’s vision and values were clearly defined, and staff understood and followed them. Staff knew their responsibilities, accountability and were prepared to take responsibility and report any concerns they may have. The management and staff ethos, philosophy, attitudes, and behaviours meant people could lead inclusive and empowered lives. They received excellent quality care, support, and treatment because trained staff and specialists were able to meet their needs and wishes. Staff understood best practice in relation to the wide range of strengths, impairments, or sensitivities people with a learning disability and/or autistic people may have and supported them accordingly. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive to them, and supported their aspirations to live a quality life of their choice. Staff turnover was very low, which supported people to receive consistent care from staff who knew them well and people’s wishes, needs and rights were at the heart of everything staff did. The registered manager and provider enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service and staff valued and acted upon people’s views. People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity.
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was Good (published 24 December 2018).
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection to check whether the service was continuing to provide a good, rated service to people.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has improved to Outstanding. 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 Grasmere Avenue 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.