4 July 2023
During a routine inspection
Ashford Lodge is a residential care home accommodating up to 8 autistic people and people with a learning disability. At the time of our inspection there were 7 people using the service. Six people lived in an adapted building and a person lived in an annex in the grounds.
People’s experience of using this 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 assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Right Support:
Staff provided effective support to identify people's aspirations and goals and assist people to plan how these would be met. Staff focused on people's strengths and promoted what they could do. There was a consistent approach to supporting people to learn new skills. Staff enabled people to access health and social care support in the community.
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:
Staff provided care to people which was person-centred and promoted people's dignity, privacy and human rights. People's individual choices were recognised and respected. Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people.
People could communicate with staff as staff understood their individual communication. People were empowered to take part in activities of their choice. People were supported to keep in touch with people who were important to them.
People were protected from the risks of harm, abuse and discrimination because staff knew what action to take if they identified concerns. There were enough staff to provide the support people needed.
Staff understood the risks to people's health, safety and welfare. Risk assessments provided guidance for staff about individual risks.
Right Culture:
The service enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service.
Feedback was requested from people, relatives or health care professionals. Staff ensured the quality and safety of the service had been assessed to ensure people were safe.
Safe recruitment practices were followed. Staff knew and understood people well. The provider and staff worked hard to develop strong leadership.
Quality monitoring systems had been developed and embedded. Morale within the staff team was good and staff felt valued.
Checks and audits were being regularly completed. Shortfalls were identified and action taken to address these.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 1 March 2022).
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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last 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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Ashford Lodge 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.