Archived: Allens Mead

Updated 5 April 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. We undertook an announced focused inspection of Allens Mead on 16 February 2017. This inspection was done to check that improvements to meet legal requirements planned by the provider after our 5 November 2015 inspection had been made. The team inspected the service against one of the five questions we ask about services: is the service well led? This is because the service was not meeting some legal requirements.

The inspection team consisted of one inspector. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location is a small care home for adults who are often out during the day and we needed to be sure that someone would be in.

Prior to this inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service, including data about safeguarding and statutory notifications. Statutory notifications are information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

As part of the inspection we spoke one person, a support worker and the acting manager. We looked at a range of records relating to the management of the service including health and safety documents, quality auditing tools, staff meetings, management meeting, supervisions, and policies. At our last inspection in October 2015 we found that some improvements needed to be made. At this inspection we found that improvements had been made.

At our last inspection on 5 November 2015, the service was rated good and requires improvement in the ‘well led’ domain.

Updated 5 April 2017

The Inspection was carried out on 16 February 2016 and was announced. We announced the inspection to ensure that the manager and person living at the service were available. The home is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to two people with learning disabilities, autism and people who may harm themselves or others. However, the service is now a single person service providing care and support to one person with a learning disability and behaviour that challenges. The accommodation was spread over three floors giving people plenty of personal space and shared areas. One bedroom had en-suite shower facilities.

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 5 November 2015 . A breach of legal requirements was found. After the comprehensive inspection, the provider wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

We undertook this focused inspection to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Allens Mead on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

There was not a registered manager employed at the home. 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. However, the registered provider had arranged management cover and has a recruitment plan in place so that the acting manager will become the registered manager.

The acting manager had implemented a quality auditing system but the frequency of audits was not happening regularly enough to identify all shortfalls in service delivery. There was not sufficient senior management oversight of the service. We have made recommendations about this in our report.

The culture of the service was person-centred, open, inclusive and empowering. The acting manager was looking for ways to improve the service and was seeking people’s opinion.

The registered provider had made plans to cover the absence of the registered manager. The acting manager provided effective leadership to the service.