Blurton Road

Blurton Road is a small care home for people who may have a learning disability or autism. The service was registered for up to 3 people; 3 people lived there at the time of our inspection.

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 and their relatives told us they felt safe and supported. Risks were assessed and managed to ensure people could safely participate in activities that they enjoyed.

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 were able to receive visitors without restrictions in line with best practice guidance.

Right Care:

People were safeguarded from abuse and avoidable harm. There were sufficient numbers of suitable staff and the provider operated safe recruitment processes. Staff supported people in line with their individual preferences and agreed care plans.

People were supported to receive medicines safely and were protected from the risk of infection as staff followed safe infection prevention and control practices.

Right Culture:

There was a positive and open culture at the service and systems were in place to provide person-centred care. People and staff were involved in the running of the service and the provider worked in partnership with others to achieve good outcomes for people.

The quality of care was monitored and lessons were learned when things had gone wrong.

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 9 September 2015).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We completed a focused inspection to review safe, caring and well-led only.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Blurton Road 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.

We found the following examples of good practice.

People who used the service were supported to be independent with cleaning their own home as much as possible, and they were proud to do so.

Risk assessments were in place for people considering visits into and outside of the home to reduce risk to them.

People and staff were regularly tested for COVID-19. Visitors were also tested before interacting with people to reduce the risk.

Checks were made on the environment to ensure safe infection control practices were followed.

People told us they were involved in the planning of their care and support. We saw that people were offered choices around what they wanted to do and their choices were respected.

We saw people getting the support they had agreed to receive by staff who promoted their independence.

People told us they chose what to eat and drink and we saw that people were supported to eat and drink a healthy and balanced diet.

People were protected against the risk of abuse because staff were aware of how to identify and report concerns about people's safety and welfare. The provider also had systems in place to ensure that staff were suitable to work with the people who used the service.

During our inspection we saw that people were supported to make decisions and were involved in the planning of their care. We saw that people were supported to engage in appropriate community activities and that their independence was promoted.

We observed people receiving care and treatment by staff who had the required knowledge and skills to provide the level of care that people required. Care records were accurate, up to date and were stored securely.

We saw that there was an effective complaints system in place which people using the service and their relatives were aware of.

We saw that there was a system in place to enable people to receive agreed medications should they need them.