Remus Gate

Updated 27 March 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This was an announced comprehensive inspection, which took place on 22, 23 and 28 February 2018 and was undertaken by one inspector. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the location is a small care home for younger adults who are often out during the day. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. The provider completed and returned the PIR in January 2018 and we considered this when we made judgements in this report.

We also reviewed other information that we held about the service such as notifications. These are events, which happened in the service that the provider is required to tell us about, and information that had been sent to us by other agencies.

We sought feedback from commissioners who had placed people and monitored the service.

During this inspection we met with the registered manager and two deputy managers at the provider’s office base; we then visited the home and spoke with three people who lived there. In total, we spoke with 10 staff who worked across the provider's five care homes. This included seven support staff, two deputy managers and the registered manager.

We looked at the care records of one person to see whether they reflected the care given and three staff recruitment records. We looked at other information related to the running of and the quality of the service. This included quality assurance audits, training information for care staff, and minutes of meetings with staff and people and arrangements for managing complaints.

Updated 27 March 2018

Remus Gate is a ‘care home’ for people with learning disabilities. 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.

Remus Gate accommodates three people in one adapted residential house on a residential estate. The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

This inspection took place on the 22, 23 and 28 February 2018 and was announced. We had previously inspected this service in March 2016, at that inspection the service was rated ‘Good’. At this inspection, we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on-going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns.

This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

The was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. 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 continued to receive safe care. Staff were appropriately recruited and there were enough staff to provide care and support to people to meet their needs. People were consistently protected from the risk of harm and received their prescribed medicines safely.

The care that people received continued to be effective. Staff had access to the support, supervision, training and on-going professional development that they required to work effectively in their roles. People were supported to maintain good health and nutrition.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the polices and systems in the service supported this practice.

People developed positive relationships with the staff who were caring and treated people with respect, kindness, dignity and compassion. People had detailed personalised plans of care in place to enable staff to provide consistent care and support in line with people’s personal preferences.

People knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint and the provider had implemented effective systems to manage any complaints that they may receive. Information was available in various formats to meet the communication needs of the individuals.

The service had a positive ethos and an open culture. The registered manager was approachable, understood the needs of the people in the home, and listened to staff. There were effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and drive improvements.