We carried out a review of the data available to us about Kimberley House on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Kimberley House, you can give feedback on this service.
Kimberley House is a small residential care home providing the regulated activity of personal care to up to four people. The service is also registered to provider nursing care but is not currently set up to provide clinical support. The service provides support to young adults with learning disabilities and autism. At the time of our inspection there were two people using the service.
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Right Support: People’s independence was promoted and staff encouraged people to take control of their own care. The service specialised in supporting people who were deaf and recruited staff who were also deaf; this enabled British Sign Language (BSL) and people’s adapted variations of sign to be the primary language used at the service. Hearing staff were trained to a basic level of BSL and the provider planned to offer higher levels of BSL qualifications. People’s care and support needs were assessed in a person centred way and risks associated with the provision of people’s care were assessed to ensure support was provided safely. Staff supported people to achieve their goals, take part in their chosen activities and pursue their interests. Staffing levels and consistency within the staff team had been impacted during and following the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the provider had maintained a continued recruitment drive and decided to pause any new placements at the service until they could be managed by sufficient staffing levels.
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.
Right Care: People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to individuals needs in a way they were comfortable with. People had access to health care professionals when they needed them. Medicines were administered safely; however, we found inconsistencies in some records relating to the management of medication. Following our inspection, the provider shared additional evidence to demonstrate these issues had been addressed with staff and amendments had been made to records to promote consistent record keeping.
We have made a recommendation the provider monitors these improvements to ensure they are embedded.
Right Culture: People received quality care and support because staff worked closely with the registered manager and demonstrated a commitment to positive outcomes for people. Staff received regular supervision and staff were identified by the registered manager to be mentored as team leaders. The provider’s difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff had caused some staff to have not completed all their training. This was also impacted, due to the provider sourcing a BSL interpreter for staff who were deaf to complete their mandatory training. However, we saw clear evidence the provider was proactive in their plan to bring compliance with all training up to date. People and relatives praised the service, it’s staff and the registered manager for supporting people to achieve things they had not done in the past; this included, accessing community based activities, working in local shops and promoting healthy and positive relationships with friends, staff and partners.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for the service at the previous premises was good (published on 15 April 2019).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
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.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.