EdgeHill Care Home

About the Service

Edgehill Care Home is a residential care home providing regulated activities (e.g. personal care) for up to up to 5 people. The service provides support to people with learning disabilities. At the time of our inspection there were 5 people using the service.

The care home accommodates 5 people in one building.

People's experience of using this service and what we found.

Right Support: 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. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs.

Staff supported people to play an active role in maintaining their own health and wellbeing. Staff would encourage people to attend medical appointments and accompany them to ensure appointments were met, and they enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Right Care: People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs. People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people's privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

Right Culture: 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. People could take part in activities and pursue interests that were tailored to them. The service gave people opportunities to try new activities that enhanced and enriched their lives. People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to sensitivities people with learning disabilities or autistic people may have. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting people to live a quality of life of their choosing wherever possible.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

When we inspected, we found some issues with physical standards in the home. We also found that notification and consent for CCTV in the home was not sought. This issues were discussed with the registered manager and they were corrected quickly.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 9 February 2018).

Why we inspected

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

After the review, we had concerns about medicines, staffing, auditing, notifications and CCTV consent. We looked at these things in the inspection.

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.

Follow up

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

At our last inspection of this service on 30 March 2016 the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good. The home demonstrated they continued to meet the regulations and fundamental standards.

The registered provider managed the home. Registered persons have legal responsibility for

meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People told us they felt safe living at the home. There were safeguarding procedures in place and staff had a clear understanding of these procedures. People using the service and staff told us there was always enough staff on duty to meet people’s care and support needs. Robust recruitment procedures were in place. Action was taken to assess any risks to people using the service. Medicines were managed appropriately and people were receiving their medicines as prescribed by health care professionals.

People’s needs were assessed and care files included detailed information and guidance for staff about how their needs should be met. Staff had the knowledge and skills required to meet people’s needs. The provider had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and acted according to this legislation. People told us they were encouraged to eat healthy meals and cook for themselves. Staff monitored people’s mental and physical health and where there were concerns people were referred to appropriate health professionals.

Staff encouraged people to be as independent as possible. People knew about the homes complaints procedure and said they were confident their complaints would be fully investigated and action taken if necessary.

The provider took people’s views into account in relation to the service, through surveys and informal residents meetings. The provider recognised the importance of regularly monitoring the quality of the service they provided to people. Staff said they enjoyed working at the home and they received good support from the provider.

We undertook this focused inspection on the 30 March 2016 to check that the provider had complied with this legal requirement. This report only covers our findings in relation to the follow up on the breach of regulations for recruiting staff. We looked at the homes recruitment records and found that appropriate checks had been completed for all of the staff currently working at the home.

We found that the provider had addressed the breach of Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Below is a summary of what we found. The summary is based on our observations during the inspection, speaking with people using the service, the staff supporting them and from looking at records.

If you want to see the evidence supporting our summary please read our full report.

Is the service safe?

We spoke to two people being supported by the service. They said staff supported them to take their medications and reminded them when they needed to attend health care appointments. This helped keep them safe and well.

Systems were in place to make sure that the provider and staff learned from events such as accidents and incidents and complaints and concerns. This reduced the risk to people and helped the service to continually improve.

The provider was available 'on-call' outside of office hours to respond to staff requests for support and to deal with emergencies.

Is the service effective?

People said they had care plans and attended regular review meetings with health care professionals from the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). We saw that their care plans and risk assessments had been kept under regular review and people were supported to attend medical appointments and meetings with mental health professionals.

Each person using the service had a CPA Contact and Crisis Form. This form included the details of people and organisations involved in the persons support. These people would be contacted in an emergency, for example, where a person using the services mental health condition had deteriorated.

Is the service caring?

One person said: 'The staff are not bad we get on well, they help me with my medication and to attend my appointments which helps me.' The other person said 'It's okay here. If I need anything I just ask the staff, they are very helpful.' Both said they had a good relationship with the provider.

We observed positive interactions between staff and people using the service during the course of our visit.

Is the service responsive?

We saw satisfaction questionnaires were completed by people using the service in May 2014. People indicated that they were satisfied with the support they received. The provider told us they used the feedback from the questionnaires to improve the service.

People said if they had to make a complaint or had any concerns about the service they would tell the provider or a member of staff. Both people we spoke with said they were confident that they would be listened to and that something would be done. One person said they had raised concerns with the provider in the past. The provider had looked into their concerns and they were satisfied with the outcome.

Is the service well-led?

We found there were effective systems in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.

We found that care plans and risk assessments had been updated and there were records of regular keyworker meetings. There were completed records relating to environmental checks and staff files contained appropriate information.

We saw that people personalised their own rooms and were able to have visitors. We found that people were treated respectfully and saw that staff knew how to communicate with and support them.

We found that information on people's needs and their care plans were available and were reviewed on a regular basis. The manager monitored the quality of the service through a number of regular checks to ensure that the service met people's needs.