Polesworth Group Laurel End

Laurel End is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 9 people. The service is registered to provide personal care and support to people with a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder.

At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 9 people who were receiving personal care.

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

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.

Right Support

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's freedom was not unnecessarily restricted, and people were not physically restrained.

People's support was provided in a residential care home. Checks were undertaken by the management team to ensure the home was safe, clean, equipped and maintained. Any maintenance issues were escalated to the maintenance staff member.

Staff worked with people, their relatives and health and social care professionals to maintain people's overall health and wellbeing. Staff supported people to take their medicines safely and as prescribed.

Right Care

People were supported by staff who knew them well and were kind toward them. People's safety and care needs were identified, their care was planned, and their needs were met. Staff understood how to protect people from abuse and were confident the registered manager would take action to protect people, should this be required. Robust recruitment checks made sure staff were of suitable character to support people.

Right Culture

There was a positive and person-centered culture at the service. People and relatives had opportunities to share feedback on the service. Staff were involved in sharing feedback through meetings and feedback forms. Staff felt valued in their roles.

The positive culture meant people received care that was tailored to their needs. The registered manager and chief executive officer operations undertook safety and quality checks on people's care and used their findings to improve the quality of the service and to take learning from any incidents that occurred.

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 this service was good (published 5 December 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

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

At the last inspection, the service was rated good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

A new registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The registered manager took over from the previous manager in January 2017.

People and relatives were at the heart of making care decisions and reviewing their care to ensure it continued to meet their needs. The service was extremely responsive to people’s needs, and comments made to us were universally positive. Care plans contained accurate and detailed relevant information for staff to help them provide the individual care people required. Plans were in place for the provider to enhance how it helped people achieve their aims and aspirations, to enhance people’s well-being.

People and relatives were very complimentary and satisfied with the quality of care they received. People received care that enabled them to live their lives as they wanted and were able to make choices about maintaining their independence. People were encouraged to make their own decisions about the care they received and care was given in line with their expressed wishes. People were supported to maintain relationships with people who were important to them.

For people assessed as being at risk, care records included information for staff so risks to people’s health and welfare were minimised. Staff had a good knowledge of people’s needs and abilities which meant they provided safe and effective care. Staff received essential training to meet people’s individual needs, and used their skills, knowledge and experience to support people effectively and develop trusting relationships.

Medicines were stored and administered safely and as prescribed.

People’s care and support was provided by a caring staff team and there were enough trained and experienced staff to be responsive to meet their needs. People told us they felt safe living at Laurel End and relatives agreed. Staff knew how to keep people safe from the risk of abuse. Staff and the registered manager understood what actions they needed to take if they had any concerns for people's wellbeing or safety.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People received a choice of meals and drinks that met their individual dietary requirements at times they wanted them.

People, relatives and staff were encouraged to share their views of the service through regular meetings and surveys. Plans were in place for the provider to enhance the way they gathered feedback so the service could improve. The registered manager had an ‘open door’ policy for people, relatives, staff and visitors to the home.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We found that people appeared happy and relaxed in their surroundings and were able to engage with staff in a friendly and open manner. One person told us, "'I would never live anywhere else," whilst another nodded, smiled and said "Yes" when we asked if they were happy in their home.

We observed acts of kindness and caring from staff towards people. We saw good alternative methods of communication were used where people were not able to communicate well verbally.

People had care plans in place that contained information to assist staff with meeting their care and support needs. Staff we spoke with knew about people's needs.

We saw that there were processes in place to ensure that medication was managed safely on people's behalf.

We saw that there were processes in place for monitoring the health safety and welfare of people and assessing the quality of the service provided.

We reviewed information about two people's care and found that their care needs were being planned for. We found that the staff understood people's care needs and how to protect them from harm.

We saw there was clear sensitive communications between the staff and people using the service. We noted staff took time to listen and wait for responses during conversations.

People told us they liked living at Laurel End and were happy with the care and support they received. They said staff were kind and helped them when they needed it. One person commented, "I really like living here.'.

People said they chose what to do during the day. We found that people had the opportunity to be involved in a wide variety of activities both within the service and in the community.

We saw that the service was clean and tidy and that it was maintained and decorated to a high standard. One person told us they were asked how they wanted their room decorated. The said, 'This is just the way I like it.'