Eastcliffe

Updated 11 January 2024

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 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.

Service and service type

Eastcliffe is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and personal care as single package dependent on their registration with us. Eastcliffe 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

The inspection was unannounced.

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. We used all this information to plan our inspection and took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. 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.

During the inspection

We met with 7 people who used the service and contacted 9 relatives. We spoke with the registered manager, service manager, 9 support workers, the cook, maintenance person and a domestic staff member. We also emailed the full staff complement and 3 external healthcare professionals to ask their views about the service and the majority responded.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 2 people’s care records, medicine records and staff files. We looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits.

Updated 11 January 2024

About the service

Eastcliffe is a residential service providing personal care for up to 10 people with a learning disability. At the time of the inspection there were 10 people living at the service.

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

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.

Right Support

People were supported to have maximum possible choice, control and independence. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life. Some relatives felt people would benefit from having same gender staff working with them, which the registered manager was trying to facilitate. Staff supported people to achieve their aspirations and goals. Relatives felt staff offered very person-centred care. People were supported safely with medicines and staff proactively addressed any issues, which might arise and took appropriate action to reduce their occurrence. Infection prevention and control practices reflected current guidance.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to people’s individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. We discussed enhancing the rotas to ensure they indicated exactly what 1:1 and 2:1 people received. On the whole, people’s care, treatment and support plans reflected their range of needs, and this promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life. The service worked well with other agencies.

Right culture

People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to the wide range of strengths, impairments or sensitivities people with a learning disability and/or autistic people may have. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs. Staff always tried to place people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff were aware of and were working to best practice guidance for supporting people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

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 rated inspection for this service was good (published 21 August 2018).

A focused inspection was completed 24 March 2022, which looked at looked at infection prevention and control.

Why we inspected

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

This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe and well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Eastcliffe on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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