Welwyn

Updated 22 May 2019

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:

This inspection was carried out by one inspector on the 4th April 2019.

Service and service type:

Welwyn is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The service had two managers 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. Both registered managers were present during the inspection.

Notice of inspection:

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did:

We checked the information we held about the service and the provider. This included notifications the provider had sent to us about incidents at the service and information we had received from the public. A notification is information about events that by law the registered persons should tell us about.

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 spent time observing care and support in the communal areas. We observed how staff interacted with people who used the service. During our inspection we spoke with three people who used the service, one relative and four support workers. We also spoke with the head of care, the registered managers, the deputy manager, the physiotherapist and speech and language therapist, a social worker and a consultant psychiatrist. We did this to gain people's views about the care and to check that standards of care were being met.

We looked at care records for five people. We checked the care they received matched the information in their records. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service, including audits carried out within the home and medicine records.

After the inspection we gave the provider the opportunity to send us any additional supporting information. They sent us some information and we used this as part of our inspection.

Updated 22 May 2019

About the service: Welwyn provides accommodation, personal care and support for up to seven people with learning difficulties. In addition, people are supported with complex needs including sensory impairments, physical disabilities and behavioural issues. At this inspection five people were living at Welwyn.

People’s experience of using this service:

People living here experienced extremely good levels of care, support which promoted positive outcomes. The management of the service had sustained outstanding practice and actively sought to improve the care they offered. People benefitted from an outstandingly responsive service where communication was key. Care and support was tailored to meet people's needs and enabled flexibility, choice and continuity of care. People were consistently involved in and consulted about all aspects of their care and support. Staff had an excellent understanding of people’s social diversity, values and beliefs and how these might influence their decisions on how people wanted to receive care and support.

The home promoted understanding and a positive attitude towards different types of disability and difference. Staff had opportunities for learning, development and reflective practice on equality and diversity, which influenced how the home was developed. Social activities offered to people were innovative, met people’s needs and preferences so people could be supported to live as full a life as possible. People were consulted about events before and after the event. The home had a key role in the local community and links with other community organisations which provided information and support to people.

The culture in the home focused high-quality, person-centred care. Staff put people at the heart of the service and their views were at the core of home's quality monitoring and assurance arrangements. Staff were motivated by and proud of the home. Continuous learning was embedded in the home's culture.

People told us they felt safe at the home and there were the systems and processes in place to safeguard them. People had personalised risk assessments so staff knew how to keep them safe.

The premises were safe and well maintained. Regular safety checks were carried out on the environment and on the equipment used. There were enough trained staff on duty to meet people's needs. People were provided with their medicines in a safe way. The management team ensured lessons were learnt and improvements made when things went wrong.

Rating at last inspection: Welwyn was last inspected on the 4th and 5th May 2016 and maintained a rating of Outstanding.

Why we inspected: This was an unannounced, scheduled inspection based on the previous inspection rating.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk