Whetstone Office

Updated 10 March 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience who contacted relatives by telephone for feedback on the care people received. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support primarily to people living in 3 ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 22 February 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited 2 of the supported living units and spoke with 4 people who used the service and 1 relative about their experience of the care provided. We also observed interactions between people and staff.

We spoke with staff on duty, including 4 care workers, a newly appointed manager, the registered manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people's care records and multiple medicines records. We looked at 5 staff files in relation to recruitment. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, complaints, accidents and incidents records, staff training records, audits, and meeting minutes.

Following our visit to the service, we spoke with the relatives of 5 people on the telephone, and an

additional staff member.

Updated 10 March 2023

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.

About the service

Whetstone Office, commonly known as Nationwide Care, provides personal care and support to people living in their own home as part of a supported living scheme. The service comprises several small houses or purpose-built flats (supported living units) where people have their own bedrooms and access to shared communal living areas. The service also provides support to people living in their own individual accommodation.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. 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. 19 people were using the service at the time of the inspection, out of whom 10 people received personal care.

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

Right Support

The service supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence. Staff supported people to make decisions, following best practice in decision-making.

Staff focused on people's strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life. People had a choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms.

Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcome.

The service worked with people to plan for when they experienced periods of distress so that their freedoms were restricted only if there was no alternative. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

People's care and support plans reflected their range of needs and promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe.

Staff and people worked together to assess risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Right culture

People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff.

Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive to their individual needs. Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals as appropriate.

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care. The service enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service. Staff valued and acted upon people's views.

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 30 April 2021) and there were 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

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 16 February 2021 during which we found breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, fit and proper persons employed, and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements. 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 has changed from requires improvement 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 Whetstone Office on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendations

We made a recommendation for the provider to review their recruitment procedures to ensure these were in line with best practice.

Follow up

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