Carmel Care & Support Teignmouth

Updated 2 February 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 an inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

This service provides care and support to people living in 2 ‘supported living’ settings, 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 a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 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.

Inspection activity started on 24 November 2022 and ended on 1 December 2022. We visited the location’s office/service on 24 November 2022.

What we did before the inspection

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 information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 7 June 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

We asked Healthwatch for any information they held about the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people who used the service and spent time with them. We spoke with 4 members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager and care workers. We spoke with 2 family members over the phone. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We looked at records including 2 people’s care plans, 2 staff files, and a range of records relating to how the service operated and was managed.

Updated 2 February 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

Carmel Care and Support Teignmouth is a supported living service, providing care and support to up to 14 people living in 2 adjoined buildings. Each person had a tenancy. The service provided 24-hour care and staff were continuously on-site. 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. At the time of inspection, 5 people received the regulated activity of personal care.

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

The service demonstrated how they met the principles of Right Support, Right Care, and Right Culture.

Right Support:

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. People were encouraged to take part in activities they enjoyed and staff supported people to pursue their interests. Staff knew people well and knew how to keep people safe from abuse and avoidable harm. A relative told us “I don’t have any concerns about the service.” Medicines were managed safely. Infection control measures were in place.

Right Care:

People received kind and compassionate care from staff who used positive, respectful language which people understood and responded well to. We observed warm and friendly interactions between people and staff. Feedback to the service received from a healthcare professional stated, "It actually does feel like a home, not an 'institute'." Staff were patient and used appropriate styles of interaction with people.

The service met the needs people using the service, including those with needs related to protected characteristics. One relative told us “I believe they continue to meet [person’s] needs as they change.” Another told us “[Person] is very happy, [person’s name] has been there since 1999, this is their long term home, they are [person’s] family and friends.”

Right Culture:

The registered manager worked hard to instil a culture of care in which staff truly valued and promoted people’s individuality, protected their rights and enabled them to develop and flourish. The registered manager told us as a service they focussed on helping people to succeed.

Staff felt respected, supported and valued by senior staff which supported a positive and improvement-driven culture. One staff member told us, “[Registered manager] is absolutely amazing. She supports her staff.” They told us the registered manager was always available to provide help during the day and always responded when she was on call out of hours

A family member told us the care their relative received was, “Excellent, very good, they go above and beyond.” Another told us, “I feel the care is exemplary. It is an excellent example of a care home, we feel very fortunate that [person] is living there.”

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 27 October 2021 and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was Good, published on 28 April 2018.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection to check whether the provider was meeting legal requirements and regulations, and to provide a rating for the service as directed by the Care Act 2014.

Follow up

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