Seaham View

About the service

Seaham View is a care home and provides accommodation and support for up to 12 people living with a learning disability. There were 12 people living at the service when we visited.

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 on the whole supported this practice. In various ways people were regularly asked for their opinions and gave them freely.

People were supported safely with medicines. Infection prevention and control reflected good practice. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community. People had accessed preventative services such as screening for health conditions.

Right Care

Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Where people had support, this was flexible, available when they needed it and to the level they needed. Staff understood and responded to people’s individual needs. Staff understood people’s individual communication needs.

Right culture

The service was open to new ways of working and ongoing improvements were introduced to promote independence and inclusivity. People received good quality care, support and treatment because trained staff could meet their needs and wishes. Additional training needs were explored with staff and provided to meet people’s needs. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. They sought advice and feedback from everyone involved in people's care. Staff were aware of and working to best practice guidance for supporting people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

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 28 February 2020). At the time we found the service was in breach of one regulation regarding the effectiveness of the service’s quality assurance. 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 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, effective and well-led which contain those requirements.

We assessed whether the service is applying the principles of Right support right care right culture. 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.

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 Seaham View on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Seaham View is a care home and provides accommodation and support for up to 12 people living with a learning disability. There were 12 people living at the service when we visited.

The care service had been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion.

People’s experience of using this service

People and relatives spoke positively about the care and support provided.

Staffing levels were sufficient to allow staff to support people to meet their individual needs. New staff were recruited safely. The service had no records to confirm agency staff received an induction prior to supporting people.

Although mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions were mentioned in support plans these documents were not in place. Fire drills had not been completed in line with the provider’s policy. Records for signing in and out of the building were inaccurate. The service addressed this matter during the inspection. Quality assurance systems were not always effective.

Systems were in place to ensure people were protected from the risk of abuse and harm. Staff had learnt lessons around how to support people to communicate concerns about staff practices. Staff completed safeguarding training and were confident any concerns would be investigated appropriately. A thorough recruitment process was in place and people were involved in the selection of staff.

Support plans were lengthy, provided generic information and at times did not specify exactly what staff were to do. Individual risks to people were not always managed effectively.

Health and safety checks were regularly conducted to make sure people had a safe environment. People received their medicines safely. Incidents and accidents were recorded and reviewed as individual incidents.

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. Information was provided in accessible formats, but this needed to be extended to people’s care records.

Physical interventions were used at times and staff were working to consider how they could reduce these. The positive behavioural support plans set out how to understand people’s emotional state and contained guidance for staff.

People and staff had developed positive relationships; we observed kind interactions between people and staff. Staff clearly knew people well and had extensive knowledge about their care needs. Relatives told us about positive outcomes. One relative said, “I am amazed at what [person] is achieving.”

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 on 2 June 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Enforcement

We identified one breach of regulation regarding the effectiveness of the service’s quality assurance processes during the inspection. Please see the 'action we have told the provider to take' section towards the end of the report.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Seaham View provides care and accommodation for up to 12 people with a learning disability. On the day of our inspection there were 10 people using the service.

The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

We last inspected the service in February 2015 and rated the service as ‘Good.’ At this inspection we found the service remained ‘Good’ and met all the fundamental standards we inspected against.

There were sufficient numbers of staff on duty in order to meet the needs of people who used the service. The registered provider had an effective recruitment and selection procedure in place and carried out relevant checks when they employed staff.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and staff had been trained in safeguarding vulnerable adults.

The home was clean, spacious and suitable for the people who used the service and appropriate health and safety checks had been carried out.

Risk assessments were in place when required and accidents and incidents were appropriately recorded and analysed.

Appropriate arrangements were in place for the administration and storage of medicines.

Staff received regular supervisions and appraisals. The majority of staff mandatory training was up to date and where gaps had been identified, training was planned.

The registered provider was working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and was following the requirements in the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

Healthcare professionals had been consulted and staff were appropriately trained to ensure people were protected from the risk of poor nutrition.

People who used the service and family members were complimentary about the standard of care at Seaham View.

Staff treated people with dignity and respect and helped to maintain people’s independence by encouraging them to care for themselves where possible.

Care records showed that people’s needs were assessed before they started using the service and care plans were written in a person-centred way. Person-centred is about ensuring the person is at the centre of any care or support plans and their individual wishes, needs and choices are taken into account.

People who used the service were consulted about activities and interests, and activities were arranged based on people’s likes and interests and to help meet their social needs.

The registered provider had an effective complaints procedure in place and people who used the service and family members were aware of how to make a complaint.

The service had good links with the local community and local organisations.

Staff felt supported by the management team and were comfortable raising any concerns. People who used the service, family members and staff were regularly consulted about the quality of the service.

During this inspection we found Seaham View had made progress on implementing their improvement plans. Medicines were safely administered. The provider had put in place arrangements to ensure medicines were kept safely.

We found people were not protected against the risks associated with medicines because the provider had not made appropriate arrangements to manage medicines.

We spoke with two relatives by phone following the inspection. They both spoke positively about the care provided at Seaham View. One relative told us, "Seaham View is absolutely lovely. My relative has come on leaps and bounds since they moved there. They are like a completely different person. It feels like their home." The other relative told us, "It's great. They really like it there. They (the staff) are doing a good job."

People experienced care, treatment and support that met their needs and protected their rights.

We found the provider had made improvements to the frequency of appraisals and supervision sessions for staff.

Comments and complaints people made were responded to appropriately.

We found that members of staff were very attentive to people's needs. People looked well cared for and at ease with the staff members who were supporting them.

People's needs were assessed and care and treatment was planned and delivered in line with their individual care plan.

People who used the service were protected from the risk of abuse, because the provider had taken reasonable steps to identify the possibility of abuse and prevent abuse from happening.