Hill House

Updated 20 April 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

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

Hill House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Hill House is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

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 a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and clinical commissioning group who commissioned care with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 1 person who used the service. We spoke with 3 members of staff including the registered manager and care staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included care records and medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed. After the inspection we continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 20 April 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

Hill House is a residential care home providing personal care to 1 person at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 3 people.

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

Right Support: Hill House provided a homely environment. Communal spaces were large and people used them in the way they preferred with support if necessary to ensure their own and others safety and wellbeing. People’s bedrooms were personalised and people used their private space when and how they wanted to. Staff understood how people made choices and supported this to happen every day.

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: People were supported to identify their goals and work towards achieving these. People accessed appropriate care to meet their health needs and specialist support to develop and maintain their wellbeing. People received support and care appropriate to their own needs and beliefs.

Right Culture: People, and their relatives, where required, were involved in planning their care and support. Support staff understood people’s needs and knew their preferences for how they liked to be supported. The provider involved people, their representatives and staff in developing individualised care. Staff understood the principles of person-centred care and placed people as the focus of what they did every day.

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 7 December 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about care, staffing and management. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns.

Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.

Follow up

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