Archived: Orchid House

Orchid House is a domiciliary care service providing personal care for people living in an extra care housing scheme. The service was supporting 23 people at the time of our inspection, including older people, people with physical disabilities and people living with dementia.

The service is located near to local services and shops. People live in their own apartments or bungalows across the extra care site. Emergency support is available 24 hours a day. The service has an on-site bistro and access to outside space.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

The provider was committed to providing high quality, person-centred care and ensuring staff shared their values.

People received safe care from staff who were safely recruited and knew how to keep them safe. Staff were proactive in identifying ways to manage risk, they used their knowledge of people’s needs to develop support they would respond to, such as social support. We made a recommendation about medicines best practice guidance.

People received effective support from consistent staff, who were knowledgeable, trained and supported. Staff worked effectively with other professionals to ensure people received the support they needed in a timely way, including with their health needs.

People and their relatives were involved in their assessments and care plans. Consideration was given to any additional support people may need on moving in to the service, to help them adapt to this change. 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.

People consistently praised the caring approach by staff. People and staff formed caring relationships based on trust, dignity and respect. This helped people to accept their care and be independent.

People’s care was developed based on their needs. Staff had a detailed knowledge of each person’s preferences and life histories, which they used to provide person-centred care.

The provider was integrated into the local community, with well established relationships with local health and social care professionals. They used their knowledge of local services to help people remain active members of their community and reduce the risk of them experiencing social isolation.

People and their relatives experienced effective end of life care. Staff recognised the emotional support needed for people and their family members at this life stage.

The provider was committed to achieving good outcomes for people. Staff worked effectively as a team to improve people’s quality of life. The provider used their quality assurance checks and feedback from people, relatives, staff and professionals to drive improvements. Lessons learnt were shared with the staff team to improve practice.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 22 March 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on when the service was registered.

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.