This inspection took place on 12 and 14 May 2015 and was announced. This meant the provider did not know we were arriving.
Mill House is a new service and has not previously been inspected.
The service provides accommodation for five people with learning difficulties and is set in a rural part of County Durham.
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 time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.
We found people’s medicines were managed safely. Records showed how people preferred to take their medicines and staff were aware of people’s preferences.
We found all areas of the home including the laundry, kitchen, lounges and bedrooms and bathrooms were clean, pleasant and odour-free.
In people’s care records we found the numbers of staff required to care for each individual was described. These were included on the staff rota and we found the required number of staff were on duty.
The provider had carried out robust checks on staff before they started working in the home. This ensured people who were employed by the provider were assessed as being safe to work with vulnerable people
All of the staff had received safeguarding training and the staff on duty were able to articulate to us the different types of abuse.
The registered manager and staff understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). The registered manager had submitted applications to deprive people of their liberty.
We found staff were appropriately supported through the use of induction, supervision, appraisal and training.
Staff were aware of people’s eating habits and had put arrangements in place to support people who required special diets.
People had in place communication passports which contained information on the best ways to communicate with people who used the service. We saw the service used pictures and photographs to support people.
During our inspection we found involvement was a key theme of the home. We saw the provider had put in place arrangements to support people being involved in decisions about their home.
We observed people were comfortable in the presence of staff and staff worked with people in gentle ways whilst being firm and maintaining safe boundaries.
The service spoke up for people and used advocacy services to make sure any decisions taken about people were in their best interests.
We found the provider had in place a comprehensive set of care plans which described people’s needs, wishes, hopes, dreams and aspirations. We saw people met with their keyworkers and were involved in reviewing their care plans. Staff were given detailed guidance on how to care for people.
People were engaged in activities which they liked and staff looked for activities to help people achieve their goals.
The registered manager had in place a broad range of audits to monitor the service quality and produced a monthly report for the provider which detailed what had happened in the service.
The registered manager also maintained a number of logs from which she could monitor the service and check its progress.
Staff were confident in the registered manager’s knowledge and experience to lead the service.