Archived: Oakwood

Updated 12 March 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: The inspection team consisted of one adult social care 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. The expert by experience involved in this inspection had experience caring for people living with severe learning disabilities and/or complex needs.

Service and service type: Oakwood is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The home had two managers registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the home is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection: This unannounced took place on the 10, 11 & 14 January 2019.

What we did: Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the home, including notifications we had received. Notifications are changes, events or incidents the provider is legally required to tell us about within required timescales. We also asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). The PIR is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give us some key information about the home, what the home does well and improvements they plan to make. We used this information to plan the inspection.

During the inspection we met and spoke with six of the people living at the home, seven members of staff, both registered managers and the nominated individual. A nominated individual is the provider’s representative and is responsible for supervising the management of the regulated activity provided. We also spoke with one of the directors and the Chief Executive. We asked the local authority who commissions care services from the home, for their views on the care and support provided. Following the inspection, we received feedback from three health and social care professionals and four relatives.

To help us assess and understand how people's care needs were being met we reviewed five people’s care records. We also reviewed a number of records relating to the running of the home. These included staff recruitment and training records, medicine records and records associated with the provider's quality assurance systems.

Updated 12 March 2019

About the service: Oakwood is a residential care home that provides personal care and support for up to thirty young people who have a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder who are attending Oakwood College. The home does not provide nursing care. At the time of the inspection there were 12 people living at the home.

People’s experience of using this service:

Oakwood had been developed and designed prior to Building the Right Support and Registering the Right Support guidance being published. We found the outcomes for people living at the home reflected some of these values and principles. We have made a recommendation in relation to the promotion of social inclusion and the way in which people are supported to live an ordinary life.

People were happy living at Oakwood and told us they felt safe. People continued to be protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. Registered managers and staff had attended safeguarding training and demonstrated a good understanding of how to keep people safe.

Risks associated with people’s complex care needs had been appropriately assessed and staff had been provided with information on how to support people safely. People’s medicines were managed, stored and administered safely and appropriately by staff who had been trained and assessed as competent to do so.

Staff were recruited safely and there were sufficient numbers of staff deployed to meet people's needs. Staff told us they felt supported and we saw evidence that staff had received an induction, training and ongoing supervision.

Care and support was personalised to each person which ensured they could make choices about their day to day lives. Staff knew people well and had developed good relationships with people. People knew how to make a complaint and felt confident they would be listened to if they needed to raise concerns.

People's healthcare needs were monitored and people had access to healthcare professionals according to their individual needs. 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 home supported this practice.

We have made a recommendation about recording mental capacity and best interests decisions in relation to people’s finances.

People benefitted from a home that was well led. The provider had systems in place to review, monitor and improve the quality of service provided. People and their relatives were involved in making decisions about their care. The registered managers worked in partnership with health and social care professionals.

We have made a recommendation in relation to systems in place to monitor, the quality and safety of the services provided.

The home was clean, well maintained and people were protected from the risk and/or spread of infection as staff had access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

Rating at last inspection: The home was previously rated as Good. The report was published on the 17 August 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection that was scheduled to take place in line with Care Quality Commission scheduling guidelines for adult social care services.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the home until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.