Kirkside House

Updated 23 January 2021

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Kirkside House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced 48 hours before the inspection site visit.

What we did before the inspection

The provider sent us a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We reviewed information we had received about the service, such as details about incidents the provider must notify CQC about, for example incidents of abuse. We reviewed all other information sent to us from stakeholders such as the local authority and members of the public. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people to ask about their experience of the care provided, one relative and one health care professional. We spoke with the registered manager, unit manager and three staff members. We looked at two people's risk assessments, three medicine records and three staff recruitment files. We also looked at quality monitoring records relating to the management of the service such as audits and quality assurance reports.

Updated 23 January 2021

Kirkside House is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to seven people with a learning disability and or autistic spectrum disorder. At the time of our inspection there were seven people using the service. Kirkside House accommodates people across three separate units, each of which has separate facilities.

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

People were supported safely and protected from harm. There were systems in place to reduce the risk of abuse and to assess and monitor potential risks to people. The management of medicines was safe. Risk assessments were individualised and detailed to ensure staff knew how to support people. Incidents and accidents were managed effectively; lessons were learned to prevent future risks.

There were enough skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of people who used the service. Staff completed training relevant to their role. Staff acknowledged people’s rights and quality characteristics were considered and respected.

The provider had embedded quality assurance systems to monitor the quality and safety of the care provided. People knew how to complain and felt listened to. Regular meetings were held with people living in the home, staff and health professionals to ensure any changes were effectively communicated. Surveys were used to gather feedback from people to improve care.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, 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 providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

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

Right support:

• The care and setting maximised people’s choice, control and Independence.

Right care:

• Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human rights.

Right culture:

• Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives.

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 4 March 2020). We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

Why we inspected

We received intelligence in relation to feedback about the home, safeguarding enquiries and whistleblowing which suggested a possible closed culture within the home. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this 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 coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.