Glen Pat Homes

Updated 6 January 2022

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.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector. They were supported by a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter as some of the people living in the service and staff used British Sign Language, and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. They made telephone calls to relatives of people living in the service.

Service and service type

Glen Pat Homes 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. This service also provides care and support to people living in nine flats in one ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

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 for the care home on 18 November and one day’s notice was given for the supported living service visit on 19 November. This was so that we could ask people’s consent for us to visit them there.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We reviewed the provider's action plan from the last inspection and used information from people who had contacted us with feedback about the service since our last inspection. We looked at notifications of events reported by the service since the last inspection. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people living at the care home and spent time observing the other two people and their interactions with staff to assess their wellbeing. We spoke to five people living in the supported living service. We spoke with the registered manager and eight members of support staff.

We observed staff interacting with people and the daily routine in the care home to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We spoke with the relatives of ten people to ask their views on the quality of the service.

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.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records (risk assessments, care plans, health action plans and daily care records) and a sample of medicines records in both services. We looked at two staff files to check their recruitm

Updated 6 January 2022

About the service

Glen Pat Homes is a residential care home providing personal care to seven people and a supported living service providing personal care and support to nine people.

The care home is in Winchmore Hill, North London and the supported living service is a building converted to nine flats in Chingford.

The care home and supported living service are for people who have a learning disability, autistic people and people who use mental health services. Some people also had a hearing impairment. In the supported living service, not everyone using the service receives support with personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

The care home had been short staffed. The registered manager increased the staffing levels immediately when this concern was raised to them.

People told us they felt safe at the service. They liked the staff and were satisfied with the support they received. The environment in the care home needed refurbishment and there was no suitable bathroom for one person who had a physical disability.

There were good infection prevention and control measures in place which protected people from risk of COVID-19. People had good support with their medicines. Staff were trained in recognising and responding to signs of abuse. Staff supported people with their health needs and to get health appointments. Staff were trained and supported to understand and meet people’s individual needs.

People were supported to have some 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.

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.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. Care had become more person-centred since the previous inspection. The culture of the care home had changed from people doing all their leisure activities as a group to people going out individually with staff to places they chose. This was an improvement since the last inspection. People in the supported living service received care and support with a person centred approach which enabled them to become more independent and follow their individual interests. The service supported them to access specialist support where needed. The service supports people to learn skills of shopping, cleaning and cooking to enable more independence in their daily lives.

The governance of the service had improved with regular audits and checks and the introduction of an electronic record keeping system that helped the registered manager monitor the quality of care being provided.

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 24 April 2020). There were two breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and governance of the service.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of these regulations.

The service remains rated requires improvement. There was a breach of regulation due to staffing levels in the care home. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

We have also made two recommendations. One is to improve the environment in the care home and the other is to ensure best practice in use of PPE which supports communication for deaf people.

Why we inspected

This was a planned focussed inspection based on the previous rating. We had also received concerns that the provider was not providing the required number of staff to support people and this was addressed as part of the inspection.

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.

The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. 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 Glen Pat Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.