About the service Barham Court is a care at home service which provides personal care and support to children, younger adults and older adults, with complex health needs, including those associated with brain injury. At the time of inspection, the service was providing support to seven people, three of which was with personal care. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People felt safe using the service and staff understood what their responsibilities were in relation to keeping people safe. People had risks associated with their health and wellbeing, assessed and managed to ensure they received personal care and support safely. Staff administered people's medicines safely and prevented people from the risk of cross infection. A health professional said, “My experience has been that they treat individuals with respect and care, leading person-centred care as well as sensitive, prompt and efficient management of safeguarding and risk issues.” The service worked in partnership with people, relatives and other agencies to support people's good health and well-being and provide consistent care.
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 trained and their competency was checked by the management team following an induction into the role to ensure staff had the skills to do their job well and effectively meet people's needs. A relative said, “All courses are done and kept up to date by staff. On certain courses like Epilepsy and First Aid, we all go together with [person], myself and the staff. This way we all are benefit from the training.”
People received a service which was personalised and met their individual needs and preferences. People were involved in decisions about their care and people and relatives were communicated with effectively. A relative said, “[Person] is treated like a young adult by staff and their preferences are always taken into account.”
People and relatives told us they had support from regular staff who were kind, understood their needs and were competent in providing personalised care. A person said, “They (staff) are very kind and willing to help me.” A relative said, “I have no fears or dreads with the support workers. They know [person] inside out and I trust them implicitly. They are not just support workers, they are part of our family.”
People and their relatives spoke highly of the service and had opportunities to provide feedback and action was taken to address issues which were raised. A person said, “I have no complaints but know how to do that. I wouldn’t be worried.” Systems were in place to assess and monitor the quality and delivery of care to people. The registered manager was committed to providing good care to support people to achieve the best possible outcomes.
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.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
Right support: The support provided by staff focused on ensuring people had choice, control and were encouraged to be as independent as possible.
Right care: People were treated as individuals and the support provided by staff promoted their privacy, dignity and human rights.
Right culture: The registered manager, and support staff, all displayed values which prioritised supporting people to live confident, inclusive and empowered lives. A relative said, “I absolutely would recommend the service. They are a good team, small, but competent.” A staff member said, “We are all happy. It’s a great place to work. To grow, learn, we never stop learning and developing. We can be so innovative for people, its limitless. We work with so many different professionals, for the greater good of our people we support, they are amazing and we are always learning from them.”
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
This service was registered with us on 30 December 2020 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the service's date of registration.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.