Collinson Court

Updated 5 April 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 1 regulatory co-ordinator, who both made telephone calls to relatives.

Service and service type

Collinson Court 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. Collinson Court 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 no registered manager in post, however a new manager had recently started.

Notice of inspection

This 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 and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 8 relatives as part of the inspection. We spoke with 9 care staff, including both permanent and agency staff. We also spoke with the manager, deputy manager, a quality improvement lead, an operations director and a managing director. We also spoke or got feedback from 4 professionals who worked with the service. Due to the complex communication needs of people who lived at the home we were unable to talk with them. However, we observed interactions between people and staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This is included 4 people’s care plans, daily care notes and various medicines and medicines records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment and 2 agency staff profiles. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 5 April 2024

About the service

Collinson Court is a residential care home made up of individual apartments with their own communal spaces and bathrooms. The service provides personal care to a maximum of 9 people who have a learning disability and/or autism. There were 9 people residing there at the time of the inspection.

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:

There were enough staff to support people in line with their commissioned care and support plans. However, staff did not always have all the necessary skills and experience to effectively support people. Risks were assessed and planned for, and staff knew people’s health conditions and risks to their safety. However, we identified some incidents staff had recorded had not always been reviewed by quality assurance systems in place and considered for any learning to reduce the risk of them happening again. Medicines were safely managed. Staff were recruited safely. People were protected from the risk of abuse by staff. Where abuse had been identified action was taken by the provider to safeguard people. People were protected from the risk of infection.

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives as there were staffing difficulties which meant people did not always have the range of choices they have previously had. 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’s social activity needs continued to not always be met. People still had varying levels of access to the community. No one was nearing the end of their life, although relatives had been offered the opportunity to discuss people’s end of life wishes if they wanted to. People were supported to communicate in a way that suited them. Relatives felt able to raise concerns, if needed, although there was mixed feedback about the response to these concerns.

Right Culture:

There had been numerous management changes over a long period of time, and a new manager had started since the last inspection. The relatives and staff were positive about the new manager and continued to be positive about the deputy manager. Quality assurance system to monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service were not always effective, although some improvements had been made. The service worked in partnership with external professionals.

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 requires improvement (published 10 November 2023).

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced inspection of this service on 17 and 21 July 2023. Breaches of legal requirements were found. We issued a warning notice on the provider. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve managing risk, supporting people appropriately and in-line with their needs and the oversight and monitoring of the quality and safety of care.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had complied with the warning notice and followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe, responsive and well-led which contain those requirements.

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

Enforcement

We have identified continued breaches in relation to supporting people appropriately and in-line with their needs and the oversight and monitoring of the quality and safety of care. We also found an additional breach regarding staff skills and experience.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.