About the service The Paul Murphy Centre is a residential care home providing personal care for up to eight people with a learning disability and / or autism. Four beds were allocated for people to access short respite stays at the home. At the time of our inspection, two people were living at the Paul Murphy Centre. There was no one accessing the respite service on the day of our inspection.
The home is an adapted, refurbished property with twelve bedrooms, some of which are en-suite. There are two shared lounges and a shared kitchen / diner. There is an accessible garden to the rear.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The deputy manager reviewed a range of documents each month. However; the provider had not had robust oversight of the service to support the deputy manager. The provider had not ensured regular checks of the fire safety systems had been completed. Plans were in place to improve the quality assurance systems.
Relatives were positive about the support provided, the communication with the staff team and felt their relatives were safe at the Paul Murphy Centre. Staff were also positive about working at the service and the support they received, especially from the deputy manager. Formal staff supervisions and meetings were planned for the coming year.
The risks people may face had been assessed and guidance was in place for staff to manage these known risks. People received their medicines as prescribed.
There were enough staff on duty to meet people’s needs. The number of staff on shift varied depending on how many people were at the home for a respite stay. Staff had been safely recruited.
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 guidance CQC follows 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 meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
Right support:
People’s needs were assessed to ensure people received the support they needed. These were reviewed with their relatives before each respite stay to ensure any changes in needs were known.
Right care:
Support was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity and privacy.
Right culture:
Staff were positive about working with people at the Paul Murphy Centre. 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 to access the community whenever possible, considering the COVID-19 restrictions.
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 15 April 2019).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to the management of medicines, staffing and the management and oversight of the service. 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.
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 good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Paul Murphy Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches in relation to the quality assurance systems and provider oversight at this inspection.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.