Clevedon House

Clevedon House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 11 people. At the time of our inspection there were 9 people using the service.

The care home specialises in the care of people who have a learning disability and autistic people.

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 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 lived in a residential area of Weston Super Mare. This enabled them to easily access their community for leisure and work.

People were able to make choices about their day to day lives and how they wished to spend their time.

People received very personalised care which was built around their needs and wishes. This enabled people to gain independence and follow their own interests.

People were supported safely with their medicines. Some people were able to self-administer their medicines following risk assessments.

Right Care:

People felt safe at the home and with the staff who supported them. People looked comfortable and relaxed in their environment.

Risk assessments were carried out to promote people’s safety and wellbeing. Staff worked with other professionals to make sure people received the care and support they needed.

People were supported by adequate numbers of staff to meet their needs and support them in their chosen social activities.

Right Culture:

People were supported by a registered manager and staff team who treated everyone as an individual. Care provided was person centred which enabled people to follow their own routines and interests.

People were happy at the home. They told us they felt well cared for and ‘at home.’

Staff were well motivated and cheerful which provided a happy and comfortable atmosphere for people to live in.

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 21 December 2017)

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and the length of time since the last inspection.

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.

This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led.

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 not changed from 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 Clevedon House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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

Clevedon House accommodates up to 11 people in two adjoined buildings. Some people had a learning disability and autism. Some also had physical or sensory impairment. There were 10 people using the service at the time of this inspection.

At the last inspection in September 2015 the service was rated Good.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good but we have made a recommendation that the service review their policy and practice in line with the NICE guidance and guidelines for managing medicines in care homes because medicine management was not robust.

Why the service is rated Good:

People were protected from abuse and harm because staff understood their safeguarding responsibilities and were able to assess and mitigate any individual risk to a person’s safety. People said they felt safe at Clevedon House.

Staff were recruited in a safe way and available in sufficient numbers to meet people’s needs.

The premises was well maintained and there were measures in place to ensure a pleasant and hygienic environment for people.

The induction and on-going training of staff ensured they were effective in their role. Staff knew how to ensure each person was supported as an individual in a way that did not discriminate against them in any way. People’s legal rights were understood and upheld.

The service had ‘gone back to basics’ with regard to ensuring people had good food and a varied and balanced diet. This had improved some people’s health. People said they liked the food.

People’s health care needs were well met through staff knowledge of the person and appropriate contact with specialist health care professionals.

People were treated with kindness and respect because their views were sought and responded to and their needs were understood and met. One person said, “It’s our home. The staff are just here to support us.” Staff interaction with people using the service was of a high standard.

People’s care and support was planned with them. Where information was important, pictorial communication was used. This included ‘happy, sad’ faces as a starting point for making a complaint or raising an issue. Complaints were welcomed as a way to make improvement.

People were able to follow their varied interests, with or without staff support. These included sports, gardening, voluntary work, outings and holidays. People came and went at the home as was their choice.

The service was well-led and the registered manager was praised for the improvements they had made to people’s lives. People’s views were sought and every opportunity taken to improve the service. Audits and checks were carried out in-house, by managers from sister homes and by the provider.

We observed people being respectfully asked by staff how they wished to be supported and in making decisions about how they spent their time during the day.

We spoke with four people who used the service at Clevedon House. They told us that they knew what was in their care plan and had been involved in preparing it. One person told us 'today is my life skills day; I am helping with some cleaning'.

The manager told us that care plans are reviewed annually with a facilitator. We saw examples of the work undertaken which showed us that people's views were recorded about issues such as 'things important to me', my dreams and goals', and 'who is going to support me in my actions'. We saw that these were placed in the care plan review. This means that the care plans are centred on the individual using the service.

People who used the service told us that they met with their key worker every month to review their care plan goals and make any changes needed. This means that plans of care are regularly reviewed and kept up to date in view of the changing needs of the person using the service.

We spoke to four people who showed us their bedrooms. All the bedrooms we saw had personal furniture, pictures and ornaments chosen by the people who lived there. Some of the bedrooms were locked which showed us that people's privacy is maintained.

We saw that some case records were not accurate because there some signatures missing.