Background to this inspection
Updated
18 March 2020
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 Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was conducted by two inspectors.
Service and service type
This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection and could arrange for people, relatives and staff to speak with us.
Inspection activity started on 3 February 2020 and ended on 10 February 2020. We visited the office location on 5 February.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection-
We visited five people in their flats to discuss their experience of using the service and spoke with one visitor about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 10 members of staff including the registered manager, assistant manager, short term placement coordinator, service manager, senior support workers, support workers and domestic staff.
We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, champion records, accreditation evidence and audits.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records and analysis of people’s feedback.
Updated
18 March 2020
About the service
Copthorne Lodge provides personal care and support to people living in an extra
care scheme with some shared facilities. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 18 people in their own flats. The service supports primarily older people within individual flats. Six of the flats provide short term reablement people requiring support to regain their independence.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The registered manager and assistant manager were extremely passionate about the service and making it the best it could be for people using it. The commitment of the management team and staff to driving up the quality of the service was clear. This was demonstrated through the volume of positive comments we received about the service everyone we spoke with was exceptionally positive about how the service was delivered.
People were genuinely at the centre of how the service was run. The committee was empowering people to shape how the service was delivered and provide opportunities for leisure activities to help reduce social isolation.
The management team and staff were committed to delivering care which was rooted in bet practice. The commitment of the staff champions to drive improvement and their success in achieving sustained results with accreditation schemes ensured people had a safe, effective and good quality service.
The service had a strong learning culture and worked in partnership very well with other professionals. People had achieved their goals and had positive outcomes from the partnership working and staff really benefitted from the support available and learning opportunities.
People were supported to manage risks to their safety and were supported by staff that understood how to recognise the signs of abuse. People were supported by enough staff that had been safely recruited. People had support to manage their medicines and received these safely. People were protected from the risk of cross infection. Where incidents and accidents had happened, these were analysed and learning was put in place.
People had their needs assessed and were involved in developing their care plans. Assessments and care plan’s involved other professionals and used best practice approaches. Staff had an induction to their role and received regular updates to training. Staff had reflective supervisions and were supported to access development opportunities.
People were supported to understand their dietary needs and had plans which reflected their individual needs and preferences. People received consistent support from staff who worked well with other professionals. Where people had health conditions staff were aware of these and had guidance in place to meet them. Referrals to health professionals were prompt and any advice was followed by staff.
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 supported by staff that were caring. Staff knew people well and had developed good relationships. People were in control of their lives and made decisions about their care and support. People were respected and their privacy was maintained by staff.
People were receiving person centred care and support. People had their preferences understood and were supported to communicate in their preferred way. Staff supported people to engage in activities and were engaged with relatives and visitors to the service. There was a clear system in place to manage any complaints and people told us they felt these would be addressed.
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 was good (published 3 July 2017).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.