Avondown House

Updated 28 July 2022

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 team was made up of one inspector, bank inspector and an Expert by Experience.

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 to people living in five ‘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.

This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care [and support] service.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

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 held about the service, including statutory notifications. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed various documents in relation to the operation of the service, including safeguarding and medicines records. We spoke with seven people and various staff, including the cook, registered manager, service manager and care staff.

After the inspection

We continued to clarify information with the registered manager. We spoke with 11 relatives.

Updated 28 July 2022

About the service

Avondown House is an extra care housing scheme providing the regulated activity personal care to people. The service can provide support to people with dementia, learning disabilities and autistic people, people with a sensory impairment or physical disability and older people. At the time of our inspection there were 139 people using the service.

Avondown House provides support to people who live across five locations. People across the locations have their own tenancy agreements and live in self-contained accommodation. We did not inspect the premises and environment during this inspection as this does not fall within the scope of the provider’s registration.

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.

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

People were protected from the risk of avoidable harm. Potential risks were assessed, and guidance was available for staff. Suspected or actual abuse was reported to the local authority safeguarding team, and staff spoke confidently about how they would identify abuse. The service undertook checks prior to employing staff. Medicines were managed safely.

Care was designed to be responsive to people’s needs. People had a personalised care plan, reflecting their needs and preferences. Assessments in relation to people’s healthcare needs were inconsistent; some lacked details, and others were comprehensive. The service had not received any recent complaints.

People received support from staff who were caring, relatives and people confirmed this. People were treated with dignity and respect, and staff spoke about people in a person-centred way.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

People were supported to access healthcare and eat and drink enough. Staff spoke confidently about how they applied the principles of the Mental Capacity Act in the course of their roles.

Based on our review of safe, well-led, caring, responsive, effective the service was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support: People were supported to make their own choices and retain control of their lives. Staff supported people to retain their independence. We made a recommendation for the provider to ensure care plans incorporated consistently detailed guidance for staff.

Right care: People’s dignity and privacy was respected and upheld. People and their relatives told us that staff treated people with dignity.

Right culture: Staff ensured people received person-centred care that was suited to their needs. However, staff had not always completed training in relation to learning disabilities or autism. We found no impact on people. We made a recommendation for the provider to review their training provision.

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 10 October 2020 and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 16 March 2018.

Why we inspected

This was the first comprehensive inspection of this newly registered service.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Avondown on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendations

We made two recommendations in relation to training provision, and the consistency of healthcare planning.

Follow up

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