Oaklands

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's risks were known and met by enough staff who had the skills and knowledge to meet people’s varying needs. Medicines were managed safely. 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.

Right Care

People were supported with a variety of different activities to promote their wellbeing. Staff understood how to protect people from the risk of harm or abuse. People were protected from the risk of infection by safe infection, prevention, and control measures.

Right Culture

The management team sought, listened, and responded to feedback about the service to continually improve the quality-of-care people received. The management team had a good knowledge of the service and understood the needs of people they supported. This had resulted in an inclusive and open culture.

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. (15 November 2017).

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

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 remained good.

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.

Follow up

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

The service had a registered manager. 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.

At the last inspection on the 23 and 24 September 2015, the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

Why the service is rated good:

People when asked if they felt safe said; “Yes.” A relative said; “If he wasn’t safe here I wouldn’t be sat here I would be at head office!” Another said; “I honestly can’t say a bad word about the place.” Staff said; “Very safe because staff are very conscientious about the people they look after.”

People remained safe at the service. There were sufficient staff to meet people's individual needs and support them with activities and trips out. Risk assessments were completed to enable people to retain as much independence as possible. People received their medicines safely by suitably trained staff.

People continued to receive care from staff who had the skills and knowledge required to effectively support them. Staff were well trained and competent in their roles. 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's healthcare needs were monitored by the staff and people had access to a variety of healthcare professionals.

The staff had built strong relationships with people. We observed staff being kind, patient and caring. People's privacy was respected. People or their representatives, were involved in decisions about the care and support people received. One relative said they were invited and attended review meetings.

The service remained responsive to people's individual needs and provided personalised care and support. People were able to make choices about their day to day lives. Complaints were fully investigated and responded to. A relative said; “If I raise any issue we meet with the manager to resolve them. The manager is very good.”

The service continued to be well led. People, staff and relatives told us the registered manager was approachable. The registered manager and provider sought people's views to make sure people were at the heart of any changes within the home. The registered manager and provider had monitoring systems which enabled them to identify good practices and areas of improvement.

All the staff we spoke to said that they felt well supported by their colleagues and management. We saw staff received the training they required to carry out their roles.

We saw that people's personal support plans described their needs and how those needs were met. We saw records that showed that multi-agency meetings had been arranged to determine particular procedures were in people's best interest.

We saw that medication was administered by suitably trained staff. People were protected against the risks associated with medicines because the provider had appropriate arrangements in place to administer and record medication.

We saw that the service held all records securely to protect people's confidentiality.

One staff member said, 'Good team work and we support each other' and a family member said, 'Couldn't wish for anything better'.

We met all nine people who used the service and two relatives. We spoke to the registered manager, six staff members on duty and checked the provider's records. We spoke to staff about the care given and looked at the care records of four people. We looked at other records pertaining to them and observed staff working with them.

Oaklands is divided into two living areas, with four people living in one area and five in the other. Each area has its own living space which includes a lounge and kitchen.

We saw that staff treated people with consideration and respect. For example, we observed staff knocking on doors. They supported people to meet with us, and introduced us to people living in the home. We observed that the staff responded to people with patience and understanding at all times.

We saw and heard staff speak to people in a way that demonstrated a good understanding of people's choices and preferences. They demonstrated a good understanding of what kinds of things might constitute abuse, and knew where they should go to report any suspicions they may have had.

One relative said, 'We have been happy since X moved into the home'.