Archived: 11 Tooting Bec Gardens

11 Tooting Bec Gardens is a residential care home providing personal care to up to eight people. The service provides support to people with mild to severe learning disabilities or autistic spectrum Disorder. At the time of our inspection there were seven people using the service. The care home accommodates people in one adapted building in the London borough of Lambeth.

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

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support

People were kept safe from avoidable harm because staff knew them well and understood how to protect them from abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. The service had enough staff, including for one-to-one support for people to take part in activities and visits how and when they wanted. People received supported from staff to make their own decisions about medicines wherever possible. Staff received support in the form of continual supervision, appraisal and recognition of good practice. People were referred to health care professionals to support their wellbeing and help them to live healthy lives.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care from staff who used positive, respectful language which people understood and responded well to. Staff supported people to express their views using their preferred method of communication. People had the opportunity to try new experiences, develop new skills and gain independence. People received support to eat and drink enough to maintain a balanced diet.

Right Culture

Staff provided people with personalised, proactive and co-ordinated support in line with their communication and support plans. 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. Staff felt respected, supported and valued by senior staff which supported a positive and improvement-driven culture.

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.

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 18 October 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by concerns identified at another of the provider's services in relation to failure to submit statutory notifications to the Care Quality Commission.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the well-led sections of this full report.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for 11 Tooting Bec Gardens 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.

At the last inspection, the service was rated Good.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

Staff were knowledgeable and followed the safeguarding procedures to ensure that people stayed safe from potential harm and abuse. Staff levels were adequate to people’s care and support needs. Appropriate medication procedures were followed to ensure that people had the required support to take their medicines as prescribed.

Staff received training that was appropriate for their role. People were supported to have choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People’s nutritional needs were assessed and staff supported them to eat and drink as necessary.

11 Tooting Bec Gardens provided a homely environment for people. The service encouraged people’s social inclusion in the community. Staff were kind and respected people’s individual care needs, including their ability to carry out tasks independently.

People were involved in identifying and reviewing their individual needs. Care records were robust and reflected the support people required to remain safe. People and their families were encouraged to provide feedback about the service and the staff team acted on the suggestions made.

Staff were supported to develop and question the practice to make improvements. The registered manager provided good leadership at the service. Regular audits took place to ensure good care delivery for people.

People using the service were aware of the choices available to them and they were involved in making decisions about their care. People were encouraged to be independent and access the community. There were a range of activities available and people were given the support to develop their daily living skills.

People had their health and social care needs met, care and support plans were regularly reviewed and care arrangements were updated to respond to any changes in need.

People were supported with consultations with health professionals.

The service had sufficient numbers of qualified and experienced staff to meet the needs of people using the service

The provider had processes in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service with regular and frequent health and safety checks completed. We also saw that incidents had been appropriately reported and risk assessments had been updated in response to an incident when required.

People told us they were able to express themselves and were confident they could raise any issues, a person said "I find that staff are approachable and easy to talk to".

A person told us they had had enjoyed their holiday, they said, “Staff helped me to plan my holiday at Butlins, myself and my friend really enjoyed our time at the holiday camp and we had our support staff present throughout to help us enjoy our time”.

A person told us that they lived together as a community for many years, they said, “This home is a lovely place to live, all of us living here get on well usually, we understand each other's likes and dislikes".

People living in the home found that they had support to do meaningful things they liked, such as part time employment and attending music therapy and college courses.

A person spoke of their confidence at cooking, they said "I go to college twice a week and have learned how to cook, I take my turn and help prepare the meals one day a week".