31 Bushey Hall Road

Updated 12 July 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations. At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. A new manager had been in post for one day and was planning to submit her application to register.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records related to 3 people’s care and support. This included people’s care plans, risk assessments, medicines records for 2 people and 2 staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We reviewed records related to the management of the service, which included training records, safeguarding incidents, complaints, quality assurance records and a range of policies and procedures. We spoke with the area manager and 2 managers. After the inspection we contacted 4 professionals, and we received feedback from 1. We spoke with 3 relatives.

Updated 12 July 2023

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.

About the service

31 Bushey Hall Road is a supported living service providing personal care to 5 people. The service supports people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

People's experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support:

People were kept safe from avoidable harm because staff knew them well and understood how to protect them from abuse. 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. Staff were nurturing and kind. People told us they were happy, and they were cared for safely. Infection control measures were in place. Health professionals were regularly involved in people's care and staff supported people to attend their appointments.

Right Care:

Medicines were managed safely. Risk assessments were in place to support staff to care for people in a safe way. Staff were recruited safely. People were supported to eat healthy nutritious food. Staff recruitment, induction and training processes provided staff with the skills to care for people.

Right Culture:

At the time of the inspection the provider was recruiting for staff and very hopeful they would have a full complement of staff. The service had effective governance arrangements in place to assess the quality and safety of the service. Staff told us they could communicate with managers if they had concerns. Relatives were happy the new manager was in place, and they felt there was good lines of communication.

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 under the previous provider was good (published 7 March 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.