Lady Dane Farmhouse

Updated 27 March 2021

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

Lady Dane Farmhouse is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager 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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including maintenance, administration, two team leaders, one carer and the registered manager.

We reviewed medication, staff rota, training and care plan records. We asked the registered manager to send a range of documents by email to support the inspection

After the inspection

We sought feedback from relatives. We reviewed a range of records including; incident reports, safety checks, staff recruitment, auditing and monitoring documents.

Updated 27 March 2021

About the service

Lady Dane Farmhouse is a two-storey building with a passenger lift to rooms on the first floor. There is a separate building in the grounds used as an activity centre and sensory room. The service is designed to meet the needs of people who have a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder, dementia, old age and physical disability. The service is fully accessible and has been adapted to meet the specific needs of people with physical disabilities.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture and other best practice guidance. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service received planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

The service was registered to support up to 15 people. There were 14 people were using the service at the time of our inspection. The service is larger than recommended by best practice guidance. However, the size of the service having a negative impact on people was mitigated by the bespoke building design.

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

People were interacting with one another and staff were engaging with people. One person said, “It is good living here, the staff are quite lovely and so is the manager”.

At the last inspection risks to people health and safety had not been fully mitigated. At this inspection improvements had been made. Risks to people had been identified. Risk assessments contained all information needed to ensure risks were kept to a minimum and detailed the action staff needed to take, if risk did occur.

Medicines were managed safely. The provider had introduced new medicine dispensing technology and procedures. This had addressed previous shortfalls in safe management of medicines.

The management and staff had clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. The registered manager had a clear vision for the service and had developed an action plan for ways to improve the service.

Staff understood how to recognise signs of abuse and actions needed if abuse was suspected. There were enough staff to provide safe care. Safe recruitment checks were completed to ensure staff were suitable to work with people.

The registered manager and staff knew people well and quickly identified when people's needs changed. People who were unwell or needed extra support, were referred to health care professionals and other external agencies appropriately.

Care plans had been transferred to an electronic system. This technology was understood by staff. The electronic system contained up-to date and relevant information to ensure people were safe and their choices recorded. This enabled staff to safely support people and understand how people wished to be supported.

People received care and support that was personalised to their individual needs. Staff had training to meet these needs and identify areas of concern.

Infection Prevention and Control policies and procedures were being followed. The premises looked clean and tidy and we were assured that the service had controls in place to minimise the risks posed by COVID-19.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 25 November 2019). We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

We undertook a focused inspection to look at the key questions of safe and well-led only, following up on a previous breach in regulation and areas identified for improvement. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. Therefore, we did not inspect them.

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.

Ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has improved to 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 Lady Dane Farm House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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