Roman House

Roman House is a care home supporting up to eight people with a learning diability or autism spectrum disorder who may also have a physical disability. At the time of the inspection there were seven people living at the service.

The home is made up of two four-bedroom bungalows which were purpose built. Each bungalow had four en suite bedrooms and a shared kitchen and living room and were fully wheelchair accessible.

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

People were safe from abuse and other risks of avoidable harm. The service was clean and managed medicines safely. Staff and people told us they could report if something went wrong and felt any incidents or allegations would be taken seriously.

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

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.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. People were supported in the way they wanted, respecting their human rights and enabling them to live a life like anyone else. People were empowered to take control of their own health and wellbeing and were supported to be as independent as they wished.

Staff were caring and treated people with kindness and compassion. People told us the staff were nice and they liked living in their home. People had hobbies which interested them and could access local amenities. People had been supported through the pandemic to adapt their routines and maintain contact with their loved ones.

Some staff felt the service was not consistently well-led and that the registered manager was not always approachable or available due to other responsibilities outside the service. Where some tasks were done by a different team or were delegated, there was not always good oversight by the registered manager that tasks had been completed to required standards.

Staff and people told us they felt able to raise concerns and complaints were well managed. People could say what they wanted from the service and from staff and were consistently asked for their views. Staff and the registered manager were keen to keep improving the service.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 4 September 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. 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

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating to follow up on breaches of regulation and ensure the provider had made the required improvements.

Follow up

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

Roman House is a residential home to support people living with a learning disability and with a physical disability or sensory loss. The home supports up to 26 people between a main residential building and two bungalows on the same site.

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

People’s experience of using this service:

The outcomes for people using the service did not fully reflect the principles and values of Registering the Right Support. People did not always have meaningful activities and were not always supported to develop their life skills to promote their independence. People were not always treated with respect by staff.

The service was larger than current guidance and the building did not meet people’s needs. The shared living space was noisy and some people with a sensitivity to noise did not want to use it.

Not all areas of the service were easily accessible to people without support, such as entering through the front door, getting into the garden or kitchen.

People were not safe from the risk of fire. Actions from a fire risk assessment had not been completed within indicated timeframes.

The provider had identified that work was required to meet all expected standards and regulations, however audits and quality checks in place had not identified all issues identified on our inspection.

Rating at last inspection:

This is the first inspection of this service since it registered with a new provider on 30 April 2018.

Why we inspected:

This was a routine scheduled inspection of the service after their registration with the Care Quality Commission.

Enforcement:

You can see actions we told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up:

We follow up on actions required by the service. We will re-inspect the service within the published timeframe for services rated requires improvement. We will also continue to monitor the service through the information we receive.