Short Break Respite Unit

Updated 14 December 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 was planned to check 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 announced comprehensive inspection was carried out by one inspector. We gave the service 48 hours notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that someone would be available.

We spoke with three people who used the service and two relatives. We spoke with the operational manager responsible for the service who is also the registered manager and a further two members of staff. We looked at three people’s care plans and records relating to the management of the service, training records, medicine audits and the recruitment records of two care staff.

We used information the provider sent us in the 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.

We looked at information we held about the service including notifications they had made to us about important events.

Updated 14 December 2018

The Short Break Respite Unit provides accommodation and care on a planned or urgent basis for people with a learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder. The service provides overnight stays and longer periods usually for up to four people for people at a time. At the time of this announced inspection there were four people using the service.

At our last inspection of 8 April 2016, we rated the service 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 ongoing 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 service had a registered manager. 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 21008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. People, relative and staff described the registered manager as supportive and approachable.

Staff continued to promote people’s safety. The staff had received training and were aware of procedures to safeguard people from abuse and manage risks to their health. Each person had a detailed support plan and staff were aware of people’s individual needs. People’s care plans were updated at each respite stay.

There were robust recruitment procedures in place. There were sufficient numbers of staff on duty to support with their needs throughout the day and night. People received their medicines as prescribed and information about their medicines had been recorded and medicine audits were carried out. There were infection control procedures in place to guide the staff in how to minimise the risks of cross infection. The registered manager met with other members of staff regularly to determine if any lessons could be learnt from events.

Staff continued to receive training and supervision to enable to them to provide the support to people with regard to their assessed needs. People gave consent to the support they received. People were given support to manage their nutrition and access healthcare services should the need arise when staying at the service.

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

The staff continued to be caring and treated people with dignity and respect.

People continued to receive support which met their individual needs and preferences. People using the service and their relatives knew how to raise a complaint and were confident any concerns raised would be addressed and resolved. The service had worked with other professionals to support people at the end of their lives.

An open and positive culture was maintained by the service. The registered manager led and supported the staff team to focus upon person-centred support. Quality checks and audits remained in place so that issues were identified and resolutions for improvements put in place. The service operated an on-call system to support the staff providing support and also to cover any care visits that the usual member of staff was unable to attend.