17 January 2024
During an inspection looking at part of the service
39 School Lane is a Care home service without nursing providing accommodation and personal to up to 8 people. The service provides support to younger adults some of whom may live with mental health support needs. At the time of our inspection there were 6 people using the service.
People’s experience of the service and what we found:
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. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.
Right Support
People were encouraged to make their own decisions and these were respected by staff. Staff now focused on people’s safety and rights, so people would be less anxious and enjoy the best well-being possible. 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. Where people wanted some assistance to make key decisions about their care, staff supported them, following best practice in decision-making. People were able to personalise their rooms and received care and support in a safe and clean environment that met their needs. The registered manager and provider planned to introduce more checks on the garden area, so they could be assured the equipment and storage of items met people’s needs and mitigated risks to their safety. Staff supported people with their medicines in a way which achieved the best possible health and well-being outcomes.
Right Care
Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The leadership at the home checked key areas of people’s safety and considered if there was any additional action they could take to work with people to mitigate their risks. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community and advocated for them when they wanted this support. People, the registered manager and provider were working together to ensure there continued to be enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs, and keep them safe. People’s care, treatment and support plans reflected their range of needs and this promoted their wellbeing and safety.
Right Culture
People told us they liked the new staff and management team supporting them and they were treated as equal partners in their care and the development of the home. The leadership at the home recognised some elements of the culture of the home required further development and were supporting this. However, people were achieving good outcomes which had a significant positive impact on their well-being, health and day to day lives. Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people, focusing on the person and other professionals as appropriate. Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect 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 05 August 2023.
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 improvement 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. When we last inspected 39 School Lane on 05 August 2023 breaches of legal requirements were found. This inspection was undertaken to check whether they were now meeting the legal requirements.
We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘All inspection reports and timeline’ link for 39 School Lane 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.