Lady Margaret Road

Updated 1 May 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. 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an Expert by Experience undertook telephone interviews with people who used the service and relatives. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in three ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

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

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection so people could be consulted and give their consent for us to visit.

What we did before the 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. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We spoke with seven people who used the service and three relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including the registered manager, compliance manager, team leader and support workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and medicines records for all the people who used the service. We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We emailed eight staff members to seek their feedback about the service and received a reply from all of them. We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 1 May 2021

About the service

Scotts Road provides a supported living service to people with a learning disability and/or mental health needs living a shared accommodation within three ‘supported living’ schemes. The aim is for people to live in their own home as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements.

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

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 statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

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

Right support:

• The service used positive behaviour support principles to support people in the least restrictive way. No restrictive intervention practices were used.

Right care:

• People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent. The staff supported people in a person-centred way and respected their privacy, dignity and human rights.

Right culture:

• Staff were responsive to people’s individual needs and knew them well. They supported each person by spending time with them and listening to them. They ensured that each person felt included and valued as an individual. People were engaged in meaningful activities of their choice. They were consulted about what they wanted to do and were listened to.

Following the last inspection, the provider had mitigated risks to people’s safety by making improvement to the environment. All three supported living schemes were clean, tidy and hazard-free. There were robust systems in place for the prevention and control of infection and the staff followed these.

People who used the service and their relatives were happy with the service they received. Their needs were met in a personalised way and they had been involved in planning and reviewing their care. People said the staff were kind, caring and respectful and they had developed good relationships with them.

People's needs were assessed before they started using the service and care plans were developed from initial assessments. People and those important to them were involved in reviewing care plans. Risks to their safety and wellbeing were appropriately assessed and mitigated. There were systems for monitoring the quality of the service, gathering feedback from others and making continuous improvements.

The provider worked closely with other professionals to make sure people had access to health care services. People received their medicines safely and as prescribed. People’s nutritional needs were assessed and met.

Staff were happy and felt well supported. They enjoyed their work and spoke positively about the people they cared for. They received the training, support and information they needed to provide effective care. The provider had robust procedures for recruiting and inducting staff to help ensure only suitable staff were employed.

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 5 July 2019) and there were breaches of regulations 12 safe care and treatment and 17 good governance. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part by notification of a specific incident. Following which a person using the service died, and an anonymous complaint in relation to how the incident was managed. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern.

Follow up

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