27 October 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Millfield House is a residential care home providing personal care to 8 people at the time of the inspection. Some people using the service had physical and learning disabilities and other conditions such as Cerebral Palsy, Head Injury, MS and the effects of Stroke. The service can support up to 8 people.
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 assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and their relatives told us they were happy with the support they received. Staff knew people very well, and there was a low turnover of staff. However, guidance for staff was not always as detailed as it could be and did not inform staff on actions to take to mitigate risks to people. We identified these concerns at our previous inspection; however action had not been effective at addressing these concerns. We discussed this with the registered manager, who was aware and was in the process of updating care plans and risk assessments.
Right Support: Model of Care and setting that maximises people’s choice, control and independence
The service (or staff) supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence be independent and they had control over their own lives. Staff supported people to achieve their aspirations and goals. Staff supported people to take part in activities and pursue their interests in their local area and to interact online with people who had shared interests.
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.
Right Care: Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human rights
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. 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 could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs. People received care that supported their needs and aspirations, was focused on their quality of life, and followed best practice.
Right Culture: The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives.
People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff. Staff turnover was very low, which supported people to receive consistent
care from staff who knew them well. People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 1 August 2019). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.
The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found the provider remained in breach of regulations.
We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance at this inspection. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
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.
The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Millfield House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.