United Response - The Swallows 183 -189 Hanworth Road

About the service

United Response - The Swallows 183 -189 Hanworth Road is a ‘care home’ that provides care and support for up to 6 people. All the people who live at The Swallows have a learning disability. There were 6 people living there at the time of the inspection.

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

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

Right Support

People living at the service received safe care and had a safe place to live. The quality of the service was regularly reviewed, and changes made to improve people’s care and support as required. This was in a way that people preferred. The home kept well-established working partnerships that promoted people’s participation and reduced the danger of social isolation.

Right Care

Enough appropriately recruited and trained staff were available to support people to live in a safe way and enjoy their lives. Risks to people using the service and staff were assessed, monitored and reviewed. Complaints, concerns, accidents, incidents and safeguarding issues were appropriately reported, investigated and recorded. Trained staff safely administered people’s medicines.

Right culture

The home’s culture was positive, open, and honest, with leadership and management that was clearly identifiable. The provider’s vision and values were clearly defined, and staff understood and followed them. Staff knew what their responsibilities, and accountability was and were happy to take responsibility and report any concerns they may have.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published 27 April 2019). At our last inspection we recommended that staff receive specialist training regarding people’s specific health conditions. At this inspection we found this had taken place.

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to check whether the service was continuing to provide a good rated service to people.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service remains good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for The Swallows 183 -189 Hanworth Road on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

We found the following examples of good practice:

The provider was following best practice guidance to prevent visitors to the home spreading COVID-19 infection. The provider enabled residents to keep in touch with family members and people's friends through regular phone calls, emails and video conferencing. The residents liked to use mobile video calls to speak to their relatives.

Staff had successfully adhered to infection control and COVID policies so that no challenges or difficulties had been experienced throughout the pandemic in relation to staffing in this service.

All visitors were asked to complete COVID-19 lateral flow test. All visiting professionals on the national testing programme were asked to show proof of their recent COVID-19 negative test. On entry all staff and visitors were provided with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). This was to ensure the safety of staff and people. People were supported to see their family in the garden during summer and markings were done in the garden to ensure social distancing.

To ensure people's well-being the provider performed monthly wellbeing assessments using a tool and people's mental state was monitored. If there was a decline in the mental state of people, they were offered extra support.

The home had multiple clean areas for staff to don and doff (put on and take off) PPE.

Our observations during the inspection confirmed staff were adhering to PPE and Infection Control guidance.

The provider had ensured residents who were more vulnerable to COVID-19 had been assessed and plans were in place to minimise the risk to their health and wellbeing.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

United Response -The Swallows 183 -189 Hanworth Road is a residential care home that provides personal care and accommodation for up to six older people some of whom have learning and physical disabilities and mental health care needs. At the time of this inspection six people were using the service.

People’s experience of using this service:

• Staff required training in mental health and learning disabilities and the management team agreed to address this immediately. We made a recommendation about this.

• Risks related to people's health and safety were identified and provided guidance for staff on how to mitigate the potential risks to people. However, information was not included on how the risks impacted on people and the registered manager said they will update the risks assessments to reflect this.

• Staff’s employment contracts and recruitment data were taken over from the former provider which was sufficient to ensure that staff were fit for their role. However, some staff required their criminal record checks to be updated and the registered manager had requested for this to be done.

• People raised concerns with the staff team if they had any. At the time of inspection, the registered manager took action to ensure that people were provided with an easy to read complaints procedure.

• The service had not yet discussed end of life care wishes with people, but told us they planned to do so.

• The staff team were trained and applied the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) principles in practice as necessary.

• People received the necessary support to manage their medicines as prescribed.

• Staff had knowledge and skills to support to people if they noticed them being at risk to harm or when incidents and accidents took place.

• Staff assisted people to prepare their meals and attend to their health needs.

• The premises were easily accessible and met people’s care and support needs.

• Staff followed confidentiality principles to ensure safe care delivery for people.

• People told us that staff were kind and respectful towards their care needs.

• People’s independence was promoted and staff had encouraged people to make decisions about their life style and daily activities.

• 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.

• People felt that the registered manager was responsive to their care needs.

• There were robust quality assurance processes in place to monitor the quality of the services provided for people.

• Staff were involved and shared responsibilities to ensure good care delivery for people.

Rating at last inspection:

• This was the first inspection of the service after they changed their provider from Dimensions to United Response in May 2018. At the last inspection on 28 July 2017, the service was given a rating of Good in all key questions.

Why we inspected:

• This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, compassionate, high quality care. Further inspection will be planned in line with our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect the service sooner.

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