Fairmont Residential Limited

Updated 30 September 2021

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

This inspection visit took place on 17 August 2021. The inspection visit was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Fairmont Residential Limited is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

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

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we held about the service and the provider. This included notifications the provider had sent to us about incidents at the service. A notification is information about events that by law the registered persons should tell us about. We sought information from the local authority, but they were unable to share any information as they had not inspected the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

People were unable to tell us about the care and support they received due to communication barriers. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We spoke with four members of staff. We also spoke with the registered manager and the operations manager.

We viewed a range of records. This included four people’s care files, daily notes and medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and a variety of records relating to the management of the service including accident and incident records, policies and procedures and quality assurance audits.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We spoke with four relatives and an advocate over the phone to gain their views and gained feedback via email from two professionals who regularly visit the service. An advocate is someone that is someone who can speak on behalf of another person if they are unable to do so.

Updated 30 September 2021

About the service

Fairmont Residential Limited is a care home providing personal care and accommodation for up to seven people who have a learning disability and or autism. At the time of the inspection six people were living at the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People continued to receive an outstanding level of support by enough staff who were recruited safely, trained to a high level and were passionate about giving people the right level of support and independence.

Staff understood the needs of people and treated them with dignity and kindness to ensure their individual preferences were met. Staff were aware of what actions they would need to take if they had any concerns about peoples’ safety.

People's individual needs were assessed, and comprehensive care plans and risk assessments were in place to help staff support people safely. Medicines were stored and administered safely with extensive auditing taking place to ensure peoples got their medicines on time and as prescribed.

We received consistently positive feedback from relatives and professionals about the care and support that people received. We were told that the registered manager was very approachable, and staff told us they were supported well and encouraged to share ideas to achieve the best outcomes for the people they supported.

Health professionals involved with the service spoke highly of the care and support provided. Positive risk taking was encouraged to provide people with as rewarding life as possible. Staff demonstrated a high level of understanding of the people they supported.

The registered manager was keen to continually improve and develop the service and ensured this through an extensive series of audits and regular monitoring of the quality of support delivered. A positive culture was promoted within the service whereby staff felt empowered to speak up and contribute to peoples’ plans of care.

The management team maintained good links with the local communities including regular contact with local healthcare professionals such as GP practices, epilepsy and positive behaviour support teams.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

Based on our review of safe and well-led the service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. People were supported to make choices, take risks and were supported with dignity and in the least restrictive way possible.

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 outstanding (published 16 December 2019)

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about keeping people safe. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has remained the same. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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.