The Hollies

Updated 30 January 2024

The service is a care home without nursing, providing support to autistic people and people with a learning disability. At the time of the assessment, there were 2 people living at the service. 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 most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessment and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. We have taken these principles into account when assessing the service. We started our assessment of the service on 30 January 2024. We visited the service site on 19 February 2024 and finished our assessment on 8 March 2024. During the inspection we found concerns in relation to insufficient support hours delivered to ensure safe and appropriate care. We found evidence of unsafe working patterns in how staff were deployed. Insufficient staffing has resulted in a breach of Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Various audits were taking place and overall there was good oversight of the service by the provider. The audits had not identified all the concerns we found but the registered manager was aware of some staffing shortfalls and was taking action to address these concerns. Staff had a good understanding of safeguarding processes but did not always feel they were listened to when reporting concerns to senior management.

Updated 30 January 2024

We are improving how we hear people's experience and views on services, when people have limited verbal communication. We checked people's preferred language and most suitable communication method, and if people were happy to use it with us. We did this by reading their care and communication plans and speaking to staff and the person themselves. During this assessment, we used a combination of speaking with people and their relatives and observing their responses, gestures, and body language. We also used Makaton. Makaton is a communication tool with speech, signs, and symbols. People told us they felt safe. They knew staff well and we observed interactions were comfortable and relaxed. People's views about the quality of support and staffing levels were mixed. Some people felt it was very good with regular opportunity to access community events. Other people felt this had deteriorated recently and the culture of the service was no longer proactive in motivating people to experience new opportunities. People felt listened to by the new registered manager and felt they responded quickly when concerns were raised.